THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, I For FEBRUARY, 1821. MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. Mr. URBAN, Inner Temple, Feb. 2. SEND you copies of some unpublished Letters of that prince of Prognosticators, William Lilly*, to his learned but credulous friend Elias Ashmolet. They tally exactly with the character of seeming simplicity and real shrewdness which he has so amusingly delineated in his "Memoirs of his Life and Times," a work which has been recently introduced to the public in a new and interesting form, in a Number of the Retrospective Review. The prominent part which Lilly plays in Hudibras, under the name of Sidrophel, would alone be sufficient to confer a considerable degree of interest on the character and history of this accomplished impostor; but the respectable rank in society which he acquired and maintained, the faith which so many of every class of life reposed in his predictions, and the political importance which was attached to him in the middle of the seventeenth century, render him worthy of being recorded as a striking instance of the triumph of credulity, in a comparatively recent period, over the learned and unlearned of an enlightened nation. We can scarcely induce our minds to believe that the contemporaries of Milton and Butler were the dupes of the low cunning of William Lilly-a man of no very extraordinary capacity, and of very moderate attainments. It will be seen in the following Letters, that he was on a familiar footing with the Duchess of Somerset, and was not only consulted by her in private, but publicly admitted to her table. The originals of these Epistles, and of some others of less interest, are among the manuscripts in the British Museum. Some few words are so illegible from age and friction, that I have not been able to decipher them; but the reader will find no difficulty in supplying the omissions, from the sense of the context. Hersham, 10 Nov. 1671. Honourable Patron, comply with Mr. Andrewes, for the good ..... butter-merchant to a Dutchesse. You must have an account of our follies, as well as of our love. Your gallant [Mrs. * William Lilly was a famous Astrologer, born in Leicestershire, in 1602. His Altanacks were in repute upwards of 38 years. In this man we have a striking instance of the general superstition and ignorance that prevailed in the time of the civil war be. tween Charies I. and his Parliament; for the King consulted this Astrologer to know where he should conceal himself, if he could escape from Hampton Court. On the other band, General Fairfax sent for him to his army to ask him if he could tell by his art whether God was with them and their cause. Lilly, who made his fortune (like the Pythia of Delphos) by favourable predictions to both parties, assured the General that God would be with him and his army.-EDIT. + The celebrated English Philosopher and Antiquary, who was founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. He was born at Lichfield in 1617, and died at South Lambeth in 1692,-Edit. 100 Wm. Lilly the Astrologer.-Biblical Criticism. Lilly] sends you some puddingse, but I W. L. I am very glad you got safe to Blyth Hall, but oportet me objurgam, scoldam, chidam tecum, and blame your rusticism, lovedonism, neglectism; in all youre Letter there was not one worde, sillable, or diminitive letter, purporting, mentioning, or notifying, how my gallant was in health, how she did, how safe she came into the countrye, how her healthe is at present: these are errors, sins, contumelys (et quid non), not to be pardoned: et hoc est verum): amend this erroneous and unpar'donable crime in your nexte. We are, God be thanked, all in healthe (as also youre gallant). Learn of me how to write nexte time. The weather is here uncertaine; harvest comes slowly in; last night much rain and thunder. Sister Mottos and Betty Sanders, now at my house, are all affectionately (sic dico) remembered to yourself and my gallant. My love is presented to your father and mother (not one word of Queene Cudd.) Ten thousand thankes to my Gallant for the cloke. I put it first on 22d July, St. Maudlin's Day; and alsoe last Saturdaye (cum.. .) an aged weoman sente me ..... her to rest. I am persuaded I shall cozen her, but I tooke her groate, fearing I shoulde gette no more that day, .... 4d. to.. but 2d. came afterward. You see how I WM. LILLY. The following Letter is the joint composition of the Astrologer and Mrs. Lilly, his third wife: Dear Friend, This is to lett thee know that we came well and seasonably home (wee found my husbande looking at the gate in expectation of us), and also to acknowledge the real sense I have of thine and thy husbande's great kindnesse unto mee, unto whom my true love is presented. I have [Feb. measured thy diaper, and find it will make 12 clouts, and leave enough for a tableclothe for thy table in the dining rome. If I cut it all, it will make 21 clouts. Let me know thy mind in it. My rebellious wife had leasure to write no more, being making custards, pan-cakes, and oatcakes. She down on her knees intreated mee to conclude it, which I do, and wishe myselfe Your vertuous Lady's invincible gallant, [To Elias Ashmole.] WM. LILLY. N your Number for January, (p. 20,) INVESTIGATOR has stated some difficulties that occurred to him respecting a passage in the Second Book of Kings, chap. ix. 13. I believe it will be very easy to satisfy him how the different and apparently discordant translations of the passage in question have arisen; although it may not be equally so to comply with the latter part of his request, and to give an exact and literal translation of the Original. .אל גרם המעלות The words in the Hebrew are, Now the noun by, of which my is the plural, is derived from the verb ny, which signifies to go up, or ascend; and hence it is used to designate various things into which the idea of ascending or of elevation enters. In the singular, a going up, or ascent, Josh. x. 10.; a hill, 1 Sam. ix. 11; in the plural, steps, or stairs for ascending, 1 Kings x. 19; degrees, or marks one above another on a dial or horologie; and hence perhaps the horologie itself, 2 Kings xx. 9, 10, 11; stories, or upper chambers, Amos ix. 6. From bence we may easily see the origin of the different translations, which INVESTIGATOR has given in his letter; horologie, Great Bible; stairs, translation of 1611; steppes, Bishop's Bible; graduum, Latin translation of 1624. I am not aware indeed of the word being used in the sense of a tribunal, or elevated seat; but still the derivation of the word may sufficiently account for the tribunalis of the translation of 1529. These 1821.] 2 Kings ix. 13, explained.-Temple Church. These few observations may, I think, be sufficient to account for the apparent discrepancies which INVESTI GATOR has noticed. The difficulty of giving an exact and literal translation of the whole passage arises from the word Da, of which the meaning is by no means evident. The word indeed seems to have been so little understood, that the Seventy have not (according to the common reading) attempted to translate it, but merely put it into Greek letters: ἐπι το γαρεμ των ενα βαθμων. Some assistance, however, towards explaining the passage may perhaps be obtained by considering the whole account. The young man was directed by Elisha to go to Ramoth Gilead, look out Jehu, and take him into an inner chamber; accordingly he went, and found him sitting with the rest of the captains. The place where they were is not specified, but from the expressions which follow, I should suppose that they were sitting in the open court or area in the centre of the house; and that when the young prophet arrived he took Jehu into the house (verse 6), and when he had performed his commission, he opened the door which led into the court, and fled, passing the other captains who remained in the court in his fight, and so made his escape into the street. When the captains heard the nature of his errand, they im mediately conducted Jehu up the stairs which led from the court to the top or flat roof of the house, spreading their garments for him to walk on, as a token of submission on their part (as the Disciples did to our Saviour on his triumphant entry into Jerusalem), and from that conspicuous place proclaimed him King. With this view of the attendant circumstances, I should be inclined to adopt the interpretation of Ludovicus de Dieu, as given in Pole's Synopsis, which is as follows. "072, significat os, ossis: Rembi in libro Radicum vertit ad ipsosmet gradus. Id mihi maxime arridet: 1. Quia et Dry sunt synonyma: ambo significant os inde oyy denotat substantiam rei, ideoque ipsam rem: cur non ergo idem valeat et ora? 2. Apud Chaldæos a sumitur pro ipsâ re." 101 It may be difficult perhaps for one unacquainted with Hebrew, as INVES TIGATOR states himself to be, to understand clearly the preceding explanation; the force of it is this. The word in question seems in its primary sense to denote a bone, and is undoubtedly used in that sense: now another Hebrew word, which has the same primary meaning, is also used to denote the substance of a thing, or the thing itself, and hence it is argued, that the former may be applied in the same manner: and as an additional proof, it is stated, that the corresponding word in the cognate language, the Chaldee, is actually used in that way. If this reasoning be correct, the whole passage should be rendered, upon the very stairs, or upon the stairs themselves. A very full account of the manner in which the houses were built in the East may be found in one of the preliminary essays to Macknight's Harfor the better understanding of what mony, to which I refer INVESTIGATOR I have said respecting the court and roof: and from that it will appear, the stairs leading from thence to the that this court was commonly used as a place of assembly, and to receive R. K. guests and strangers in. Mr. URBAN, Feb. 6. HE which your Corre Tspondent " E. I. C." entertains respecting the original positions of the venerable and antient Monumental Effigies in the Temple Church, although I fear I shall not be able is so strongly felt by myself, that, to explain it away, I am induced to subject, the result of a visit to that send you a few remarks upon the curious building in the autumn of last year. chral remains of antiquity have ge The vicissitudes which the sepulnerally experienced; the dilapidations ed zeal; and the transpositions which they have suffered through misguidfrequently took place among them (in an age when these interesting memorials of the illustrious dead were viewed rather as the relics of vanity and superstition, than the last tribute of respect to the amiable Divine, the pious Benefactor, or the distinguished Warrior,) have occa sioned much of the perplexity and uncertainty which now attend our inquiries. 102 On the Temple Church and Monuments. enquiries. I am inclined to believe that almost as much difficulty would accompany the attempt to appropriate several of the Mouuments in the Temple Church, as in fixing the positions which they antiently oc cupied. It is very improbable, even admitting the limited extent of the Church, that so great a number of noble personages were buried side by side, and their monuments crowded together as we now see them; dissimilar in their forms, irregular in their sizes, and clumsily fixed in the pavement. We cannot assert that any of these monuments were removed from the Choir to their present situations; though a removal may with propriety be conjectured to have taken place at a distant time, which is rendered very proba ble by the supposed date of some of the memorials, and the known period in which the beautiful choir was erected. A minute examination of the Temple Church would, I think, lead to the conclusion, that the circular part, which now serves the purposes of a tower or porch, was the whole of the original building, and therefore contained the altar, and that the present Church was appended to it in the reign of Henry III. in the style of architecture then newly adopted, the proportions and splendour of which were so superior to those of the Nor. man style. We learn from various histories, that the Temple Church was founded A. D. 1185, and the style of the architecture, composing the circular building, agrees with this date. The Pointed arch was certainly used about the middle of the 12th century; and though it was at first but sparingly made use of, no considerable space of time elapsed before its shape and proportions appear to have been preferred to those of the Norman style, out of which it probably arose. After associating with the Norman arch in various ways, the Pointed style became finally the settled order of Ec. clesiastical Architecture at the beginning of the 13th century, subsequently to which period we find few, if any, of the characteristics of the subverted style, retained. Mr. Britton, in his interesting work, entitled "Architectural Antiquities," says, "The exterior wall of the Circular Church, with the great West door, are the re [Feb. mains of the original building of 1185, but the clustered columns within, with the incumbent arches, and the whole of the square Church, seem nearly to correspond with those examples of Ecclesiastical buildings which we know to be of Henry the Third's reign*. If Mr. B. really supposes that the whole of the Circular building is not the work of one age, and the result of one design (and if I interpret his words rightly he does think so), I am of different opinion. The foregoing observations which I have offered on our antient architecture, render any remarks on this passage unnecessary. I will only further state, that if we disallow that the whole of the Circular building of the Temple Church is the work of one period, and the result of one design, then no such style of architecture, as that commonly and perhaps properly called the compound style, ever existed, and the transition from the Norman to the Pointed style was not gradual, but immediate. The three Monuments supposed to belong to Earls of Pembroke, and which are cross-legged, are as old as the 13th century, but the Tomb, which is said to represent Geoffrey de Magnaville, A. D. 1148, is of more remote antiquity than the Church in which it is deposited. This may be the fact, because the Temple was removed from Holborn, where the first Society in England was established, A. D. 1118. Whether this curious effigy has been misnamed, or whether it was removed to the present Church, immediately after its completion, are equally doubtful. To conclude, at the time when the choir was comfortably fitted up with pews, some of those valuable specimens of sculpture, which now increase the interest, as well as the solemnity of the round Church, possibly incumbered the floor, and were consequently removed. That no respect was felt for these memorials of past ages, when the benches were discarded for inclosed seats, is sufficiently proved in the curious tomb and figure of a Bishop on the South side, having been, till fately, entirely hidden from view. At a remote period perhaps, when an altar in the round Church became unnecessary, the monumental figures *Vol. I. p. 14. 1 1821.] Advantages of Cottage Husbandry. which from necessity had been dis- are become so visible to all ranks and parties, and their source (want of employment) is so well known, that the imagination is racked in vain to discover the cause, that so infatuates the landholders, to torment themselves by starving others. It cannot with any good grace be denied, that there are ample means of relief, when it is known, that there are more than twenty millions of acres of waste land in the United Kingdom capable of giving profitable employment to the people, and above thirteen millions of these would yield bread to the cultivators, though the proprietors retain them in an uncultivated state without any motive whatever, unless they lend themselves to follow blindly the doctrines of Malthus; doctrines from which humanity shrinks, the imagination recoils, the eye averts, and turns away with disgust. So much has already been said on the subject of cottage husbandry, and its utility in every point of view, that since the year 1810 publications, in the shape of books, pamphlets, paragraphs in newspapers, and other periodical works, have appeared to the number of above twenty-five thousand, all recommending the system of cultivating the soil by means of cottagers having small patches of land attached to their dwelling, as the best means of alleviating the difficulties of the nation. Each of these has one or more experiments, without a single instance of failure; and all come to the same conclusion, that this practice promotes industry, furDishes employment to all ages and both sexes, prevents dependence on parish relief, is most favourable to morality, prevents little offences that tend to greater crimes, and in every district, where it has been introduced, bas operated in diminishing, while in some it has altogether extinguished, poor rates. Such measures cannot fail to benefit every rank of society, and contribute greatly to the security, pros 103 perity, and happiness, of the empire. It is a fact established by the strongest and most irrefragable evidence, that labourers are generally more industrious and independent of parish aid, and that their moral habits are much better, where they hold small patches of land. How gratifying it is to the benevolent mind, to contemplate the effects of this system! In the coun ties of Lincoln and Rutland, on an average of several years ending in 1815, the poor rates are said to have amounted only to eleven pence in the pound. The poor man, deprived of his privilege of common, the garden demolished, of which he was once the happy occupant, forced into a town or village, and bereaved of every means of improving his condition, becomes the victim of sedition and despair; and thus sinks not alone, but drags his falling countrymen with him. There are, it is true, a great number of individuals, who have just claim to the gratitude of their country in this respect, and merit the name of patriots; among whom are the Duchess of Rutland, Marchioness of Exeter, Countess of Bridgewater, Ladies Evans and Shelly, &c.: and the Lord Bishop of Chester, whose desires, dolphin-like, show themselves above the element they live in, must not be forgotten; or Earl Stanhope, whose example is highly deserving imitation, not only in his building cottages, and adding patches of land at small rents, (frequently for a number of years at a pepper-corn,) but also for his general humanity, generosity, philanthropy, and, certainly not least, for his conduct to the Clergy on his estates, in uniting them with their parishioners in the bonds of friendship and mutual exchange of good offices. This he effects by contracting with them for their tithes, and thus removing a never-failing source of strife; whence they live with their flocks loving and beloved, as becomes their high office as ambassadors of the Prince of Peace. This method was begun by the late Earl, probably at the suggestion of that excellent man and eminent solicitor, Alexander Murray, esq. who had long been his Lordship's confidential friend, as well as legal adviser. C. M. Cheere, esq., M. P. for Cambridge, deserves well of his country for the improvements on his estates of |