be placed on the adage, Fortes creantur fortibus, to argue back from the children to the parent, Lollius seems entitled to a very high credit on the score of both his sons. That well known Epistle (1 E. ii.) Trojani belli scriptorem, maxime Lolli, indicates an affectionate interest in the welfare of the eldest son, by the inculcation of what Gesner calls, a lanx satura præceptorum vivendi. And the masterly Epistle to the younger brother (1 E. xviii.) Si bene te novi, metues, liberrime Lolli, it is impossible to peruse without admiring the high spirit which required such prudential lessons for its guidance, and without discovering a manly character trained under the father's eye to every thing generous and upright. But, before concluding, let me not forget to bring forward the passage from Pliny, of so much later date, promised at the outset. Here then it is. Lolliam Paulinam, quæ fuit Caii Principis matrona," he says (Nat. Hist. L. ix. c. 57), "vidi smaragdis margaritisque opertam, alterno textu fulgentibus, toto capite, crinibus, spirâ, auribus, collo, monilibus, digitisque : quæ summa quadringenties sestertium colligebat (an immense sum, certainly): “ipsa confestim parata mancupationem tabulis probare. Nec dona prodigi Principis fuerant, sed avitæ opes, provinciarum scilicet spoliis partæ. Hic est rapinarum exitus: hoc fuit quare M. Lollius infamatus regum muneribus in toto oriente, interdictâ amicitia à Caio Cæsare,'Augusti filio, venenum biberet, ut neptis ejus quadringenties sestertio operta spectaretur ad lucernas." Why, this is out-Heroding Herod ! Even Velleius, who was on the spot at the time, does not allege that Lollius enriched himself by corrupt acceptance of royal gold. Even Velleius does not dare directly to fix on him the criminality of suicide: he only hints, forsooth, that so it might have been. Had Velleius known (or surmised) the one accusation or the other to be true, he would have been only too glad to brand with it the object of Tiberius's hatred. As to the Provinciarum spolia and the rapine, to which, as if notorious, Pliny alludes, that whole concern of provincial governments evidently must have preceded the year 1 B C and yet in that very year Augustus gave the most solemn pledge of his belief in the probity and trustworthiness of Lollius, byconfiding to him the sacred charge of young Caius on his being sent into the East. The fact, therefore, and the only fact, for which the authority of Pliny can claim to be received, must be this: that Lollia Paulina (a much injured woman, be it remembered) possessed a rich and brilliant set of jewels, purchased, in part, out of her grandfather's wealth, and that Pliny actually saw her adorned with them, extravagantly and ostentatiously enough. But there his personal knowledge ends. For all the rest, and that merely hearsay, it is easily told. Such magnificence of dress in one lady would raise the spirit of envy in other ladies, no doubt. And the scandal of Caligula's or Claudius's court, fouler than that of Tiberius, whispered the lie-which Pliny's credulity heard that Lollius, after being grossly defiled with "barbaric pearl and gold" showered on him by Eastern kings, was unable to bear the shame of detection, which ensued, under the frown of the Prince, and that to escape from infamy, he poisoned himself, in attestation of his wretchedness and his guilt. Ουτως ἀταλαίπωρος τοῖς πολλοῖς ἡ ζήτησις τῆς ἀληθείας, καὶ ἐπι τὰ ἕτοιμα μᾶλ λον τρέπονται. THUCYD. L. i. § 20. H. R. Mr. URBAN, SUTTON-PLACE, NEAR GUILDFORD. New Kent-road, April 4. IN your Magazine for 1789, pp. 108, 223, are notices of Sutton-place near Guildford, erected in the year 1521, by Sir Richard Weston, Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries, on a demesne granted to him by Henry VIII. in the previous year.* These notices were accompanied by a view of the great Gate of the mansion, then in a dilapidated and ruinous condition, and sustained by props. The Gateway was subsequently pulled down. The accompanying view represents the three remaining sides of the Quadrangle of this noble mansion, as they now appear. Sutton-place, presents the finest specimens perhaps extant of the stamped and baked clay of the 15th century, formed into huge bricks 14 inches long by 9 wide, and 34 inches thick, also into coins, mullions, weatherings, &c. all of which are impressed with their proper mouldings, and the cavettos enriched with a tracery of running foliage, and other appropriate ornaments. The bricks are marked alternately with R. W. and with a tun and bunches of grapes, within borders of Gothic ornament. A rebus for Richard Weston is evidently intended. The colour of this brick or artificial stone is excellent, a light warm ochre resembling Caen-stone. The material is of a close texture, and rendered extremely hard by the fire of the kiln. Time has made little or no impression on it. The effect of the minarets on either side the hall-door, composed of this brick, of the coins and parapet of the building, is exquisitely rich, and in any edifice of the period that has yet come under my notice, unrivalled. The great hall is a spacious apartment, about 50 feet in length. In the windows are some most interesting specimens of ancient stained glass. Some of these were probably brought from an older manor house which stood at a short distance from that erected by Sir Richard Weston. The principal devices are as follow. The crown in the hawthorn bush, on either side the letters . E. for Henry VII. and his Queen, Elizabeth; the red rose Lancaster; the red and white rose, mi-parti, for Lancaster and Plantagenet conjoined; the falcon and tower, for Anne Boleyn; a white hart, perhaps the badge of Richard II. on a quarrel of glass brought from the older house; also the arms of England, with the rose en soleil, Edward IV.'s badge; the arms of the Merchant Adventurers; W the letters T. A united by a love-knot; L. E. P. and a ton, perhaps a rebus for Lepton; a moor's head, the crest of Weston; a daisy springing from a tun; a quarrel containing a miniature of King Charles 1.; a book charged with a heart, stars, and key, over the book a crown, motto respice suspice, 1630; a goose playing on the bagpipes; a woman holding an infant swathed with the cross bandages used at the period for the nurse clothes of children; a clown or jester in a yellow coat, crossing a brook, wearing a cap and hood, to which asses' ears, a cock's comb† and bells are appendant; under his belt are thrust five goslings, confined by the neck; he grasps two others tightly in his hand. This design is evidently copied from the rare old book, George Withers' Emblems, published in 1635. The jest is, that the clown being sent by his *His son Francis Weston, a gentleman of the King's privy chamber, was one of those who suffered death for an alleged criminal intercourse with Ann of Boleyn, A.D. 1536.-Stow's Annals, 4to, p. 967. + From this appendage of the ancient clown, undoubtedly came the word coxcomb, a shallow conceited fellow. See the lines subsequently quoted. "A Collection of Emblemes, ancient and moderne, quickened with metrical Illustrations, both morall and divine, disposed into lotteries, that instruction and good counsell may be furthered by an honest and pleasant recreation, by George Withers. London, printed for John Grismond, and are to be sold at the signe of the Gunne, in Ivie-lane, 1635." The Emblems were foreign plates, and their history is thus given by Withers: "These emblems graven in copper by Crispinus Passæus (with a motto in Greeke, Latin, or Italian, round about every figure, and with two lines of verses mistress to fetch home some goslings, a river being in the way, he tucked the birds under his girdle (by which means they were strangled), lest they should be drowned! The tale is thus moralized by Withers : "The best good turns that fooles can do us, Proove disadvantages unto us." The picture in the book is encircled by the Latin motto, Stultorum adjumenta nocumenta. Underneath the clown are the words ne mergantur! and over his shoulder is inscribed claus narr! which perhaps may be Englished, shallow fool! The following are the verses annexed: "A fool sent forth to fetch the goslings home, (Through which their passage lay) conceiv'd a feare, Hee underneath his girdle thrusts their heads, A most extraordinary, extravagant, and ill-drawn picture occupies the eastern end of this splendid old hall, the bathos of the design is completed by the inscription, which occupies a broad gilt tablet at the base of the frame, and will explain the subject: "In the Deluge, the most powerful of the human race, and the strongest of the animal creation, may be supposed to be perishing last on the mountain; likely thus to be rescued from the wreck of the universe, is a beautiful little female. "In this picture, therefore, while the solitary summit of the last mountain remains uncovered by the water, one of the gigantic antediluvian princes gains his last refuge with his little daughter and a hungry lion who had swum thither for shelter, springing on the maiden, the father, conscious of his own strength and superiority, expresses indignation rather than contempt." The family of Weston of Sutton has been characterized by a uniform adherence to the faith of the Romish Church. Sir William Weston, a member of this house, was Lord Prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem at the time of its suppression. He had the grant of a pension of 1000l. per annum for life; but dying on the very day of the resignation of its temporalities, he never received a penny.† in one of the same languages (paraphrasing these mottos), came to my hands almost twentie yeares past. The verses were so meane, that they were afterwards cut off from the plates, and the collector of the said emblems (whether he were the versifier or the graver) was neither so well advised in the choice of them, nor so exact in observing the true proprieties belonging to every figure as hee might have been. Yet the workmanship being judged very good for the most part, and the rest excusable, some of my friends were so much delighted in the graver's art, and those illustrations I had made upon some few of them, that they requested me to moralize the rest, which I condiscended unto, and they had beene brought to view many years agoe, but that the copper prints (which are now gotten) could not be procured out of Holland upon any reasonable conditions."-Vide " Address to the Reader." This is certainly a most extraordinary instance of authorsbip,-a man writing a book expressly to illustrate plates of which he was not at the time in possession. The lottery, of which Withers speaks, was drawn by turning a sort of index affixed to the work round without looking at it; to whatever number indicating the emblem the index pointed, that emblem was the player's lot; he turned to it, read, and applied the moral to himself as he might. The index was formed like the dials for indicating the time of day in different parts of the world, affixed to geographical treatises. The author George Wither, the republican, has obtained more notoriety for his name, by the satirical lines of Butler,, than his own works could have procured for him. Vide Hudibras, canto 1, p. 1, line 645. * Illustrations xvii. book iv. GENT. MAG. VOL. I. Stow's Survey, 4to, p. 827. |