1825.] Monuments to Dr. Jackson, Bp. North, and Adm. Russell. torious Countess of Essex, who was divorced, and married Car, Earl of Somerset in December 1613. The Spring of 1614 was the first she ever had seen according to her wishes*. A man and woman in black, both unknown; he with a ruff, cloak, hand on his sword, and black bonnet; she with a row of pearls in her hand, and an anchor round her neck. Three portraits; two gentlemen and one lady, by Sir Peter Lely, unknown; the lady in an oval. NEXT ROOM. Man over the door, in gilt armour, red sash, &c. ruff; oval. Two ladies over the other two doors, both unknown; one in white sattin, the other in red. STAIRCASE. Here are several French portraits, &c. unknown. Prince de Condè, in black and gold Lewis XIII. a boy in black armour, Anne of Austria, a head, black veil, white hair. Philip II of Spain, a head only. 135 mense ruff, very yellow, or red hair, and a fan in her right hand. A long passage gallery is hung with prints, but none are curious. The table in the Servants' Hall is twenty-four feet long, and three wide, of one plank of oak; on the South side of the house is a noble gravel walk, twenty-four feet wide, and nearly half a mile long. Mr. URBAN, IT. Aug. 5. T is with great pleasure I see it announced that Chantrey's large statue of Dr. Cyril Jackson was last month placed in Christ Church, Oxford; and of the finest pieces of sculpture the that it is generally pronounced to be one University can boast. The resemblance has been taken from the Doctor's portrait by Owen. The Cathedral of Winchester has just received a monument to the me Brownlow North. It is erected at the mory of the late venerable Prelate, Dr. East end of the church. A handsome monument is also just raised, in the Church of Canford Magna, co. Dorset, to the memory of Admiral Russell, of whom you gave so long and interesting a Memoir in vol. XCIV. ii. p. 369. It consists of a large dove-coloured ground, surmounted by tablet of statuary marble, raised on a appropriate naval trophies, and with the Admiral's arms, and motto "Che Mr. H. Harris, of Poole, and is highly sara sara," below. It was executed by creditable to his abilities. The tablet contains the following inscription,-a just statement of the gallant officer's naval career: "Sacred to the memory of Thomas Macnamara Russel, esq. Admiral of the White, late Commander-in-Chief in the North Seas. He actively served his country seventy years, with ardour, bravery, and ability, and combated her enemies in thirty-six engagements. His most undaunted spirit of enterprise during the first revolutionary wars of America and France was unrivalled. In 1784 he was offered the honour of knighthood, and at the It may be so; but we are not entirely convinced. According to the old manner of dating, the 12th of March, 1614, was in the Spring of the year 1614-15, whilst the Spring of 1613 (that is 1613-14) was the first after the Countess's shameless marriage. We are inclined to regard the motto "No Spring till now!" rather as a compliment, (not extravagant in those times,) paid to the lady's beauty by the painter or some other admirer, than as having any particular allusion. Still the portrait may very probably be the beautiful but "rotten branch of the Howards," as Sir Francis Bacon termed her. If the picture be still at Holme Lacy, the question may be decided by reference to her engraved portraits. EDIT. close 136 ·Baskerville, Dyneley, and Goodere Families. close of his brilliant career he received the warmest acknowledgments from the Admiralty, for his superior conduct as a Naval Chief. His successful blockade of the Texel during the threatened invasion of our shores, was conducted on a new and admirable system of his own. He was the first who had ever dared to anchor a fleet there, in the strongest gales of a northern winter, and on an enemy's lee shore! Heligoland surrendered to him, by which he secured invaluable advantages to his country. The magnanimous, intrepid, and generous heart of a British seaman was united in him with the urbanity of a courtier. He departed this life on the 22d day of July 1824, in his 85th year. Elizabeth, his wife, died on the 2d day of March, 1818, in her 66th year. This tribute to departed inestimable worth is affectionately inscribed by his son-in-law, George Edward Paley." Still more recently than the preceding, an elegant Grecian tablet of white marble has been erected to the memory of Lord Byron in the Church of Hucknal Torcard, about four miles from Newstead Abbey. It bears the following judicious inscription: "In the vault beneath, where many of the ancestors of his mother are buried, lie the remains of GEORGE GORDON NOEL BYRON, Lord Byron of Rochdale, in the county of Lancaster, the Author of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.' He was born in London on the 22d of January, 1788; he died at Missolonghi, in Western Greece, on the 19th April, 1824, engaged in the glorious attempt to restore that country to her ancient freedom and renown. His sister, the Honourable Augusta Maria Leigh, placed this tablet to his memory." Mr. URBAN, Lea Hall, near Birmingham, Aug. 12. OUR Correspondent, YOUR "R. I." Gent. Mag. XCIV. ii. p. 290, who is in want of information respecting the family of Baskervill, will find in Nash's " History of Worcestershire," vol. 1. p. 156, a pedigree of that family, beginning with Nic. Basquer vile, who married a daughter of Herfast, who was brother to Gonore, the wife of Richard Duke of Normandy, the great grandfather of William the Conqueror. There are twenty-two generations recorded, terminating in coheirs, one of whom was the mother of the first Lord Chedworth. In answer to "A. Z." for information respecting the Dineley and Goodere families. I would refer him also [Aug. to Nash's "Worcestershire," vol. 1. to shelter himself under his own roof The Brass Mortar mentioned by 1825.] [137] .. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 23. Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay. With Engravings. Vol. III. 4to. pp. 554. branches, and every thing possible should be known of the state, and manners and customs of the country. F India be intended to form an in-. It is evident that wisdom which suptegral part of the British Empire, no documents can be more important than those of the kind now before us. Indeed, nothing is a more plain want of policy, than the neglect of having any country intended for a permanent possession regularly mapped, and statistically investigated. A General or Commander-in-chief then knows what are the proper spots for cantonments of cavalry, what for infantry, where are the prospects of the enemy's recruiting, and so forth. When Pichegru commanded the troops in Flanders, paper placards, like those of the London street hawkers, were posted in different parts of the line of encampment, even so simple as observations of the barometer," It will freeze tomorrow, It will thaw to-morrow," and so forth. Fas est et ab hoste doceri. And we are solemnly of opinion, that if a statistical survey is not immediately made, where the nature of the conquest renders it practicable, an omission ensues of serious moment to the lives and property of garrisons, settlers, merchants, &c. Indeed, a General, by false or defective information, may be led into measures which absolutely insure defeat. He may be carried into swamps and woods, defiles, mountainous countries, in short, into situations where, for want of previous knowledge, he is not provided with the proper tactical application of his forces. The absurdity is evident. He is required to march into a country of which he has no geographical details; perhaps to march from London to Edinburgh as the crow flies, as if his passage was through the air. In India in particular, where troops are precious, maps and statistical investigations are imperiously necessary, as to the line at least of military roads (in India we believe there are none), the practicability of passage, and the possibility of provision. Street roads should be cut from one end of British India to the other, with vicinal GENT. MAG. August, 1825. poses superior reason, points out all these things with regard to every foreign possession whatever, annexed to the Crown of Great Britain. There is, therefore, a branch of knowledge which we would call Governmental; and as there are two dissertations in this volume, viz. the account of the Township of Lony (p. 172 seq.) and the statistical account of the Pergunna of Jumbousar, (p. 331 seq.) which ought to have been rendered unnecessary, by Governmental publications under authority, like, the Ordnance Surveys. We have thus spoken out, with the pure intention of doing good, that of enabling St. George ever to overcome dragons, not for the purpose of inducing party snakes to coil around him in his sleep, and poison him. Such are the sentiments which the present volume has suggested to us in particular, over and above the usual interest which the publications of learned' Societies ought to excite in the friends of Literature. We shall now proceed to the con tents. I. Remarks on the state of Persia, from the Battle of Arbela in A. C. 331, to the Rise of Ardashir Babegan in A.D. 226. By Major Vans Kennedy. This paper is intended to show that the Parthians were not a distinct people from the Persians, and that the former had not attempted to overthrow the religion of Zoroaster; that Alexander's conquest of Persia was only attended by a change of the Government, inasmuch as the lands of the vanquished were not divided amongst the principal leaders of the victorious army, nor was even the country occupied, and its possession maintained, by large bodies of troops; that the prac tice of the Parthian warrior taking his unerring aim, while his horse was carrying him from his enemy, is an usage which has always been as common to Persian as to Tartar tribes (p. 22);' that there is no ground whatever for supposing 138 REVIEW.-Bombay Transactions. supposing that the Parthians ever were a Scythian people (p. 23); that no information is to be got from Muhamedan writers, because there is no reason to suppose that any ancient historian was ever translated into either Arabic or Persic, and such writers are therefore extremely ignorant of all events which have taken place in foreign countries (p. 25); that the two ceremonies of the Magi, viz. the Barsam, or holding small rods of the tamarisk in their hands, while sacrificing or reciting prayers, and their covering their mouths while standing before the sacred fire, were never practised in any other religion than that of Zoroaster (pp. 35, 51); and in sum, that Arsaces or Arshak, who founded the Monarchy known by the name of Parthian, seventy years after the Macedonian occupation, was a Persian, and that his troops and the inhabitants of the conquered country were Persian also. P. 44. Thus it appears that the object of the paper is to establish the identity of the Parthians and Persians. The authors used are Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Justin, Tacitus, Pliny, and Poly bius. on Concerning this position we have only to observe, that Parthia was never considered by the Greeks and Romans to have been any other than a province of Iran (Persia) proper, which province was bounded on the North by Hyriania, on the W. by Media, the S. by Carmania, and on the E. by Aria; but that the inhabitants were not of an Aboriginal race, but Scythian emigrants. (See Sir Will. Drummond's Origines, i. 301.) Sir William further observes, that Parthia was the present Erak Agem, a name signifying a country of barbarians, which appellation was not only due to the ancient Parthians, but is now in a greater degree to their modern descendants. (Id. 334 -336. He further thinks, that in the early ages of the world Iran and India formed only one nation. (p. 361.) Major Vans Kennedy will not admit that the Parthians were Scythians, (see the Memoir, p. 18 seq.) and very justly complains that the term Scythian is the opprobrium of antient writers, as from its vagueness and latitude of application, it never conveys any tinct information." (p. 18.) Sir Will. Drummond lays to the charge of Isidore (Orig. 9. 2) the Scythian origin dis [Aug. of the Parthians (p. 301); but Isidore is plainly supported by Strabo and Justin: nor do we think that Major Vans Kennedy has made out his conclusion in this point,-" that there are no grounds whatever for supposing that the Parthians ever were a Scythian people" (p. 23); because we think that the ancients only meant that they were not aboriginal, but were of that country which they called Scythia, and which perhaps we should with the same licentiousness call Russia, though the nations composing that immense empire are evidently distinct tribes. II. Account of a bed of native subcarbonate of Soda found in Mulwa. By Capt. John Stewart. III. Notes respecting the principal remains in the ruined City of Bejapoor, with traditional accounts of their Origin, &c. By Capt. W. H. Sykes. The These ruins take date between the years 1500 and 1672 of our æra. kingdom terminated in 1685, A. D. Arungzebe taking prisoner the last of its Kings, Secunder Adil Shah. The ruins consist of innumerable domes, spires, and buildings. The dome of the Sooltan Mahomed Shah's tomb transmits sound like that of St. Paul's. (P. 57.) "Over the South door of the tomb, and suspended by a long chain, is one of those meteoric stones, the occasional fall of which has produced so much surprise and discussion; the natives call it vijlee puttur (lightning stone), and suppose it possesses the property of preserving the building from being struck by lightning. It hangs too high to be distinctly examined; but viewed with a glass, it has the appearance of a grey metallic stone." P. 58. It is needless to observe, that specimens of these aerolites may be seen at the British Museum and elsewhere. At the tomb of Ibrahim Pad Shah, "The windows, instead of lattice or fretwork, are composed of Arabic sentences, cat out of stone tables, the space between each letter perforating the stone, and admitting the light...... What is very curious in this tomb is, that the ceiling is quite flat, made of square slabs of stone without apparent support over this is a room with a convex ceiling, but the curvature so slight raised the admirably proportioned dome." as to render it almost flat; upon this is P. 58. "From the angles of the Maitree Kujoos [a gateway and mosque] hang massy stone chains, which must have been cut out of 1825.] REVIEW.-Bombay Transactions. On one lower is a gun of iron bars thirty feet long. The ascent is by a winding ramp outside the tower. P.61. At the tomb of Buree Ali, "the rising Sun and Moon are badly painted on the walls amidst clouds; doubtless being typical of some event in the King's life. Aurungzebe's brass gun, mounted on a tower near the Mecca gate, is a great curiosity. Four men were put into it, and made to sit bending their heads. It would require an iron ball weighing upwards of 2500 pounds. Some stone shot were lying near, and they reach higher than the knee of a tall man. It is called Malik-i-meiden (the King of the Plain). Although nearly fifteen feet long, its diameter is such as to give it the appearance of a vast howitzer. The gun was once fired; but it threw down so many buildings, and frightened so many pregnant ladies into premature labour, that the use of it was interdicted for the future. It was cast by order of Aurangzebe, in commemoration of his conquest of Bejapoor, and is covered with Arabic sentences in relief, explanatory of that event. P. 62. The Caravanseras are of curious construction, consisting of long lines of lateral arches "placed in the manner in which the arches of a bridge are, built up at one end, but open at the other to the street." P. 62. IV. An Account of the origin of the Living God at the village of Chincpore near Poona. By Capt. W. H. Sykes. This is a legend of miraculous nonsense, evidently fabricated for the purpose of recommending senseless superstition, without even the interest which a writer for the nursery would think necessary to introduce into legends. Offended gods, it seems, punished the contumacious, by giving them the belly-ache (sic) (p. 67), a sort of unpicturesque revenge, which has not the poetical merit of our fairies in their Cinderillas and other wonderful things which the laughing eyes of the pretty prattlers on our knees relate with so much glee. What a fine specimen of the Bathos! Papa, the fairy turned Tom Thumb into the Monument, King Arthur into St. Paul's, and his Queen into Westminster Abbey! But this story ends in their all having the stomach-ache. Some pearls, however, 139 perhaps mock ones, may be scratched out of this mere heap of rubbish. It seems that the sanction of the god was shewn "by a conical stone arising out of the earth, and that people of extras ordinary sanctity buried themselves alive in a sitting position." (p. 67.) That our Druids were modified Budhists, has been often asserted, and we catch like drowning men at straws, at any assimilation of stone worship, and the frequent sitting posture of skeletons in barrows, though we admit that the instances quoted are very little to the purpose. V. On the institution and ceremonies of the Hindoo Festival of the Dusrah, with a short account of the Kurradec Brahmins. By Major-general Sir John Malcolm, G. C.B. and K.L.S. This paper gives us an insight into what might have been the real mythology of the æras of the Tower of Babel, and may serve to convince us that Bryant's system, which has laid the foundation of a new school of mythology, has no archetype in history. It appears that the Sami tree was endowed with miraculous properties. Sir John Malcolm says, "The Sami relieves from sin; the Sami destroys foes. It is the bearer of the vow of Arjoon, the beloved object received by Roma." "In one of the learned Wifford's papers in the Asiatic Researches, the name of Semiramis is stated to be partly derived from this tree. It is conjectured to be a compound of Sami and Rama, or "he who sports in the Sami tree," and he adduces indeed from the Pooranas authority for the etymology. P. 75. We refer our readers to various oriental writers concerning the miraculous properties ascribed to trees. It is too trite to require further observation. The Dusra, says Sir John (a writer whom we hold in high respect for judgment and strength of mind), "Appears to me an allegory, representing the triumph of Virtue over Vice; but, like all stories in the Hindoo mythology, is so crowded with gods and goddesses under various shapes and names, with a multitude of rakush or demons, giants, or monsters of every description, as to be rendered almost unintelligible." P. 75, Sir John then gives us an abstract of the legend which contains a history of the metamorphoses of Doorgah, which, it seems, like our mysteries and |