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omnino abstineas; necnon a quibuscunque aliis ludis in omnibus diebus dominicis et festivis, ac etiam profestis, salvis feria iij et va, te abstineas.

"Quòd in cantu in choro servetur concordia, et cantus planus tractiùs cantetur, et psalmodia cum retentione puncti in medio versûs.

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Quòd non sint lectirotales in dormitorio, et quòd claudatur et serâ firmetur ostium dormitorii, et quòd confratres vestri simul vadant dormitum, et quòd simul exeant.

"Quòd si aliqui Canonicorum velint adire Campos, vel ad extra, ut in burgum vel civitatem Londini, causâ recreandi, quòd vadant bini et bini . . . . . nec accedant causâ prandendi, aut cenandi, aut bibendi.

"Quòd omnes de Conventu unum habebunt lotricem, virum non mulierem . . . quâlibet septimana recipiat vestes Canonicorum, in loco vulgariter dicto-[no name given], et quolibet die Sabbati in eodem loco eas retradat et liberabit.

"Quòd unus Canonicorum, in ordine Sacerdotali constitutus, etate maturus et gravis, deputetur, qui custodiam et curam Infirmarie habeat.

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'Quod in Dormitorio servetur silencium debitum, et quod cerimonie custodientur, et quod ibidem non nutrianturaves, sicut columbe aut corvi.

"Eo quòd habeant Juniores magnam familiaritatem cum dicto Suppriore, secum ludendo pro pecuniis, et ipsi in hujusmodi ludis Xum blasphemant, et convicia sibi invicem dicant, et multas suscitant rixas; .... quod abstineas te ab hujusmodi familiaritatibus.

"Quòdinfra Claustrum serventur silencium et lingua Latina, et contemplatio, ad completorium; et quòd concanonici vestri sedeant in claustro, in carallis, cum capuciis depositis ultra cculos; et quòd abstineant se ibidem a Baloes et pryk song.

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'Quòd confessiones pro delictis publicè fiant in domo Capitulari.

"Quòd Confratres vestri non bibent post Completorium, nisi ex urgente causâ, et quòd statim simul accedant, post completorium, ad dormitorium.

"Quòd laici non intrent in Refecto rium, tempore refectionum.

"Quòd servetur silencium in refectorio, et quod provideatur de mense lector per septimanam, et quòd legantur Biblia vel aliquod opus alicujus Sancti, et quod nullus legat in mensâ, nisi talis qui scit perfecte legere, et quòd post prandium recedatur à refectorio in chorum, debito ordine, cum psalmo Miserere.'

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"Quòd campana, que pendet ad ostium refectorii, pulsetur debite et in bono ordine; primò, quandò Conventus venit ex choro, et intrat dormitorium; secundò, quandò Conventus est in carallis, tune Conventus surgat et ibit ad lavatorium, et lavabit manus, et tunc ibit in Refectorium et stabit in inclinatione. Supprior pertranseat ad locum suum, et pulset campanam suam, vel aliud signum dederit, et dicat Benedicite.'

"Quòd Ebdomadarius non exeat precinctum Prioratus. . . . et quòd singulis horis vacet contemplationi in claustro, et orationi in Ecclesia, nisi tempore refectionis, aut quietis in dormitorio, et quòd omninò abstineat se a ludis.

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"Quòd provideatur de uno Janitore, qui aperiat et claudat portas et hostiam prioratus, temporibus et horis debitis."

Dated July 23, 1507.

Bishop Stratford, in 1320, in his Injunctions to the Austin Canons of Bromere, forbids them to go into the outer court without leave; that an elderly canon should celebrate in the adjoining church of St. Thomas, and "Quòd lecti Canonicorum in Dormitorio ita pateant, sicut a transeuntibus aperciùs domus vestre valeant intueri. Cortinis et aliis quibusdam impedimentis, die nocteque, a parte anteriori lectorum eorundem amotis totaliter et deletis; precipimus etiam quòd orologium et lavatorium domus vestræ reparentur." There are no complaints of irregularity, but Bishop Fox in his Injunctions to the Austin Canons of St. Denys, near Southampton, two centuries later, forbids them to hunt, or frequent taverns at Portswood or Southampton, and inhibits them from leaving the monastery except by two and two, or with "; a honest com. panion."

The Injunctions of Fox, issued in 1521 to the monks of the Cathedral, shew that

extreme laxity of discipline prevailed; one entry gives a slight insight into a portion of the conveutual arrangement:

"Quòd non solùm hostium Infirmarie, quod est versus hostium Claustri, sed etiam hostium quod est prope cameram hordarii stat continuè apertum, ita quòd per utrumque eorum, maximè verò per illud quod est prope Cameram hordarii, viri mulieres et pueri intrant Infirmariam, tam in temporibus refectionum quàm aliis temporibus."

I also find in Fox's Register, p. iii. f. 3, the following entry regarding the Prebend and parish Church of St. Laurence, Romsey, which is mentioned in other registers. "Præfatus Magister Hugo Ashton ad ecclesiam prebendalem, unà cum portione in ecclesià parochiali Sancti Laurentii de Romesey, dicte diocesis, ad quam per Abbatissam et Conventum monasterii Beate Marie et Ste. Ethelflede de Romsey, ordinis Sancti Benedicti, veras ibidem patronas, presentatus extitit." The entry is of value, as it proves the existence of a parish church in connexion with the Abbey. The prebend of St. Laurence is mentioned in Pontissara, fo. 46.-I am, &c. MACKENZIE E. C. WALCOTT, M.A., F.S.A.

A SOUVENIR OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. MR. URBAN,-A recent search among the manuscripts in the Imperial Library has led me to the discovery of a very interesting little volume, whose peculiar value had, as I believed, escaped the notice of the authorities in charge, as it had done the compilers of the catalogue; this manuscript being nothing more nor less than a copy-book of Latin prose exercises in the handwriting of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, then Dauphiness of France, when under the superintendence and education of Henry II. and Catherine de Medici.

dently in the autograph of her Latin preceptor. These themes are written in the form of letters to the Queen's fellow-students, the Princesses Elizabeth and Claude, daughters of King Henry, the former of whom was affianced to Philip II. of Spain; and one is addressed to a certain " Claudio Quarlocoio condiscipulo," but who this fellow-disciple was I know not.

The MS. is really an exercise-book of the Queen's, in which she entered her Latin prose-better Latin, as I think, than many young students write now; the whole in the Queen's well-known hand. writing, but having on the verso of each letter a free rendering in French, eviGENT. MAG. VOL. CCXIII.

It was only after having copied the whole of the manuscript very carefully that I learned, to my great disappointment, that it had already been privately printed by the members of the Warton Club in 1855, under the editorship of M. Anatole de Montaiglon, and a copy of this book I found, with some difficulty, in the printed department of the Library. I then perused with some interest the editor's preface, and my attention was 4 Y

the French of one of the poor Queen's staunch friends for a long period, the hand and the French of John Lesley, Bishop of Ross afterwards, who took the degree of doctor of laws in the University of Paris not many years before these letters are dated.

drawn to the question of the authorship hand, and Scotch-French, the hand and of the French version of the little Queen's letters, which may be the preceptor's original compositions, to be translated by the Queen, but more probably are versions of her Latin. I should have stated before that they are all dated between July 1554, and January 1555, from Compiegne, Rheims, the library of St. Germain, Paris, and else where; not containing any important historical facts, but illustrating occasionally the habits as well as the movements of the French Court.

It would be curious, M. de Montaiglon says, to ascertain the name of Queen Mary's preceptor, who was probably the writer of the French versions. He mentions a M. St. Etienne, who is recorded by Brantome as one of the Princess Elizabeth's preceptors; but he suggests that possibly Mary's preceptor came with her from England, as Latin compositions of such kind as these were commonly made in England by persons of high rank, and he instances King Edward's Latin exercises and letters, deposited in the British Museum. (Harl. 5087.)

So far M. de Montaiglon, but I think his theory untenable. It is certainly possible that Queen Mary had an English preceptor of Latin, but more probably he came from Scotland, and was an accomplished French scholar also, as were Maitland of Lethington, Murray, Lesley, and the best men of that time, for Queen Mary had learned and understood very little English or Scotch.

Now if these French versions of the Queen's themes are in the hand of her Latin professor, that professor was not St. Etienne, for St. Etienne was a Frenchman, and this is no French writing. Secondly, he was no Englishman, for this is not English handwriting, nor English-French. But it is a Scotch

Your readers may decide whether it is probable that Lesley was Queen Mary's master. I have not seen it so stated, or hinted at, in any biography which I have been able to find here, either of the Bishop or the Queen. But this I state confidently, that while the Latin exercises are all undoubtedly in the hand of Mary Stuart, the opposite pages, containing the French renderings, are all, without any manner of doubt also, in the autograph of Bishop Lesley.

I have some acquaintance with the history of the time, and a good deal of "sentimental" sympathy for Mary Stuart. I like to think of the history of that poor martyr to circumstances, to recall the wily cunning and the faithful devotion of her minister Maitland, and of her heroic soldier the Laird of Grange. I hate to think of Murray, Lennox, Morton, Bothwell, and other villains; but I love to ponder over the long services of this highly-gifted scholar, John Lesley; persevering through good report and ill report to think ever gently and charitably of his quondam pupil, driven at last in despair to think for himself and to act for himself, but never willingly, as I believe, losing one atom of his affection and respect for the fair pupil to whom he had taught the humanities, the gracious princess whose courtesies won at his hands a life-long and most generous devotion.—I am, &c.

Paris.

LEOPOLD MASSEY.

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THE ENGLISH MR. URBAN, There is here, in the Imperial Library, an interesting manuscript narrative of the state of England in 1666, written by a certain Comte de

STAGE IN 1666.

Comminges, which deserves printing, I think, and has never yet, as I fancy, attained to that dignity. It is a very impartial, just statement, well consi

dered, and put together very methodi cally; relating the fertility of the soil, the excellence of the cattle, the hospitality of the people, the natural productions of the country, and the manners and customs of our ancestors very truthfully. Special paragraphs also are devoted to our means of defence, ships, fortifications, our army, our nobility, and the various grades and conditions of society as then existing.

Respecting London he says little, but gives that little a separate chapter:--"It would be difficult to tell precisely

the number of inhabitants, but if I may be permitted to form a judgment in a matter so doubtful, I should say with those who have the best means of knowing that there are more than six hundred thousand souls in this city, of which the greater part live by the labour of their hands and petty commerce. The plague this year has made a great ravage, which they estimate at six score thousand souls. And the Duke of Albemarle, who lived there during the calamity (which is even yet not ended), assured me that fourteen thousand persons died in one week, without comprising the Quakers, who are buried in their own gardens and their names not inscribed on the lists of dead kept by the clerks of parishes."

I translate another passage at length: "One word I must now say of the amusements in which the inhabitants of this great city indulge, and which are according to the disposition of each person, but one may nevertheless reduce them to the Play (La Comedie), which takes place every day, except on Sundays and great festivals, in two houses, magnificent as well for the beauty of the theatres, the convenience of the boxes and the pit, as for the machinery, the band, the music, and the safety of the audience. The actors do their best to imitate nature, and the authors, without being tied so scrupulously as we are to

rules prescribed by the learned, make no difficulty whatever in bringing a king to life in the first act, going to battle in the second, being married in the third, dead in the fourth, and a tyrant crowned in the fifth.

"I have seen represented the whole life of Henry VIII., with its many wretched marriages and fatal successes. Cardinal Wolsey appeared in his hat, in rochet and hood, and I believe even and Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury in the pallium."

Whether this is intended as a fling at the violation of the unities and pro

prieties by Master William Shakespeare may be uncertain. Any of your learned readers who may visit Paris, and have time to go to the Imperial Library and consult MS. Français 218, will find my translation a correct one, and may be interested to read of other tastes in which the English indulged while the plague was raging: of boxing, "which has something of the barbarous in it" (as it has here still among people who only chatter and kick), of bull-baiting, cock-fighting, betting (the King told the author of one person who had wagered and lost a property of six thousand Jacobuses annual rent), of bear-baiting, and of Punch. He will also read of more than two hundred houses where

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dissipated, lazy folks go to take tobacco, brandy, tea, coffee, and chocolate :" where, pipe in mouth, among glasses and bottles, people chatter about the make fun of their rulers and their news, and talk freely of politics, and ministers, ignorantly and unjustly, till a complete state of intoxication puts an end to their impertinent and scandalous meetings.—I am, &c.

Paris.

LEOPOLD MASSEY.

Historical and Miscellaneous Reviews, and Literary Notices.

Collectanea Antiqua. Vol. VI., Part I. -We gave a short time ago a list of the contents of the present Part of Mr. Roach Smith's labours in illustration, mainly, of the Roman antiquities of our country". We spoke then of giving a more full notice at an early period, but we now find our space far more limited than we could desire, and must therefore confine ourselves to a few very brief remarks.

As to the first paper, that on Hodhill, Dorsetshire, we find that the remains discovered there have an approximate date reflected on them by the coins, ranging from Augustus to Trajan, discovered along with them (beside some rudely designed British ones), and these remains being generally of iron, shew that the Romans worked the British mines at a very early period.

Among the "Roman Monuments illustrative of Social and Domestic Life," we have attention called for the first time in print to a very curious one at Vaison (in the vicinity of Avignon), once the capital of the Vocontii, who, as shewn by a hitherto little understood inscription in the Museum at Edinburgh, were concerned in the building of the Antonine Wall. Such is one among many of the illustrations of history which such men as Mr. Roach Smith can draw from sources that are still too much

neglected, although both England and France are, so to speak, overgrown with learned Societies.

The subjects of the articles, "Chester, its Roman Remains," and "RomanoGaulish Fictilia," have been already noticed in our pages, the one in the various reports of the Chester Archæo. logical Society, and the other in a paper

GENT. MAG., Sept. 1862, p. 348.

expressly devoted to the subject. We therefore need say no more than to point out Mr. Roach Smith's papers to all who wish to have the respective subjects brought before them with all the advantages of the author's learning and patient industry in systematizing the information formerly gathered together, and completing it by correcting what may be erroneous, and supplementing what may be deficient, by the application of his own research and sagacity.

In conclusion, we must note that the present Part contains no less than thirteen etchings which are alike spirited and faithful, and a large number of woodcuts. Of the plates, Nos. IX. to XII. are devoted to the walls of Chester, and give the best idea possible of their present state.

:

The Earls of Kildare, and their Ancestors from 1057 to 1773. By the MARQUIS OF KILDARE. Addenda. (Dublin: Hodges, Smith, and Co.)-We noticed the third edition of the work of the Marquis of Kildare, shortly after its appearance, and spoke of it truly as a monument of very considerable labour and patient research. Since its publication, however, copies of letters now in the State Paper Office have been placed in the noble author's hands, and from these he has selected portions which throw much additional light on the history of the Geraldines in the time of Henry VIII, Edward VI., Mary and Elizabeth; and we are glad to see that the Proceedings of the Kilkenny Archæological Society have contributed several illustrations of the fortunes of the

noble family. The work, being avowedly

b GENT. MAG., Dec. 1860, p. 602. GENT. MAG., Aug. 1858, p. 135.

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