418 Mr. URBAN, Thoughts on a Universal Character. Oct. 2. [Nov. interesting but imperfect discoveries of A CHARACTER intelligible to Young, Champollion, and Salt, and persons speaking every variety of language, so as to facilitate the intercourse of mankind, was once a favourite speculation among ingenious men. Bishop Wilkins wasted eminent genius, and labour, and knowledge in the pursuit, and also adapted particular letters of the alphabet and their combinations, as duplicate representations of his arbitrary symbols, by which he formed a language which could be spoken as well as read. The alphabetic plan however makes the characteristic plan superfluous, for if arbitrary signs are to be used, we may as well employ the numerous combinations of the letters, as any other signs less known. It is a matter of interesting inquiry to ascertain the tendency of the practice of mankind towards this object. The Mexicans, Egyptians, and Chinese show the actual use of such arbitrary signs of ideas, adopting them not as an improvement, but from their ignorance of alphabetical writing, or the difficulty of applying it to the sounds of their languages. The American system is little known, but was obviously very inadequate to its object. The Egyptian system is only known through the enables us, I think, clearly to trace the origin of Alphabetical writing. The Chinese system is used in common by persons speaking different tongues, but is partly phonetic, generally unsystematic, extremely laborious, and unavoidable from the nature of the monosyllabic languages. The Arabic numerals are the only arbitrary hieroglyphics in almost universal use among mankind. The Roman letters, as symbolic of sounds, are in very general use among civilized nations in Germany; they are superseding the old German text, and will of course be adopted among all nations, whose languages have not yet been reduced to writing. The language of Algebra is universal through the civilized world; a very slight knowledge of languages will enable a mathematician to read many foreign works of pure analysis. The extension of science through every department of Nature tends to introduce technical names, intelligible to men of science in all nations, written in Roman character, and to that extent portions of universal language; Chemistry, Zoology, Botany, Mineralogy, Geology, Nosology, have a no 5 She had for her dowry the manors of Shalford and Aldford by the gift of her eldest brother, who sometime after (on his second marriage with Sibyl de Ferrers) repossessed himself thereof, and kept them till near the time of his death; her brother Alan made her his heir. Man. Surr. II. 91. Reg. de Lewes. 6 He received a grant of the barony of Heddingdon from King Hen. II. for his services in the wars, and owned Compton and other manors in the same county. 7 The present Lord de Dunstanville, Francis Basset, through one of his ancestors, is descended from Cecilia. Lysons's Mag. Brit. (Cornw.) p. lxxvii.-He was created Baron de Dunstanville of Tehidy in Cornwall, 36 Geo. III. with remainder to his issue male, and Baron Basset, of Stratton, the year after, with remainder to his daughter Frances, and her issue male. He uses for his armorial bearing, Barry wavy of six Or and Gules. 8 He died seised of Castlecombe, Heytesbury, and other manors in Wiltshire, leaving the Lady Petronilla, his daughter and heiress, married to Robert de Montfort, whose son sold the ancient baronial Castle to Bartholomew de Badlesmere. It afterwards went to the Scroopes. Banks's Ext. Peer. I. 71. 9 King Henry III. restored to Gilbert the manors of Shalford and Aldford, which belonged to him in right of his mother; he owned the manor of Bicester; his daughter and heiress, Eustatia, by Richard de Camville her 2d husband, had a daughter and heiress Idonea, who carried these manors in marriage to William de Longespee, Earl of Salisbury, from whom they devolved to the Stranges, and were sold. Man. Surr. II. 91. Dunk. Oxf. II. 253, app. 1. 10 He had a special grant of the barony of Heddingdon from King John, the 5th year of his reign, and left a son Thomas, Baron of Heddingdon, who died without issue, and three daughters coheiresses; Isabel, the 3d daughter and coheiress, carried this manor in marriage to Hugh de Plessetis, by whom it was relinquished to King Edw. I. The Duke of St. Alban's is now Baron of Heddingdon, his ancestor being so created by King Charles II. Rot. Pip. 5 Joh. "His eldest brother gave him the manor of Compton. Alan Basset was the ancestor of that baronial family who were seated at Wycombe, whose heiress married Roger de Bigod, Earl of Norfolk. Dugd. Bar. v. I. p. 383. menclature 1825.] New Chapel at Penzance, Cornwall. menclature generally known through Europe. The small portion of universal scientific language thus established, shows the madness of such an attempt in the time of Bishop Wilkins, and affords little encourageinent even in the present day. Metaphysics, the intellectual faculties, the sensations, passions, tastes, and moral feelings of our nature, have no admitted philosophical nomenclature, nor can the speculator safely stir one step, until some masterly system of the human mind shall command univeral assent, and lay a basis for a general view of all our ideas of internal and external nature. Common sense will here cut the Gordian knot. Is it not easier at once to learn foreign languages actually in use? The English and Spanish will ultimately carry the traveller through the whole of America from New Georgia to Terra del Fuego; the various tongues of savage tribes and small colonies will be swept away by the flood of these two great languages, as the Irish, and Cornish, and Welsh, and Manks, and Erse, and Norse are vanishing from the British islands. From the revival of letters, Latin has been a general literary language, French is a passport through modern Europe, Arabic through immense tracts of Asia and Africa. The original tendency of mankind was to branch out into the use of various dialects; the present tendency is towards a permanence in written tongues, and the spread of those spoken by the more active and intelligent nations. A few languages will ultimately be known by persons of education through the world, concurrently with the local tongues, though not to their extinction. Persons of education in the presesent day speak, or at least read a much greater variety of tongues than their ancestors, and it becomes a matter of interest to ascertain the order in which languages should be placed as objects of study: 1. In reference to the amount of their literary productions. 2. In reference to the actual number of individuals in the world, by whom each language is spoken. 3. In reference to the extent of country and population, among whom each language is more or less known. Perhaps in all these particulars the English should stand at the top of the scale. 419 I will not venture to speculate on the number of tongues which our posterity may acquire with improved grammars and early tuition, when the fatal error of burthening the memory with rules shall have passed away. The student should first learn the paradigmata of a tongue, and then the radical words with every assistance from their similarity to any known tongue, or from any other principle of association which can be applied *. The student should read easy narrative writers, in which the meaning is more easily caught than in moral and abstract works, and should gradually acquire the syntax, rules, and idioms of the tongue, referring to the grammars for illustration, but never committing to memory any thing except paradigmas, words, and passages from works of taste. SEPTIMUS. done about the new Chapel to be O much has been said (and so little built in Penzance, that some account of what has passed there on the occasion, may be not unacceptable to some, and perhaps to several of the readers of your very valuable Miscellany. On the 8th of March, 1824, a meeting of the inhabitants, by public notice, was held in the Town-hall, to consider of repairing or rebuilding the Chapel; when, it having been determined that it should be rebuilt, the Curate soon after announced a 1000l. from the Corporation, the subscription of 1007. from the Rector of Ludgvan; and a like sum of 1001. from himself; and about 250l. more were subscribed by other persons. In short, Mr. Urban, by the first of April, at subsequent meetings, the subscriptions, &c. including that of Mr. Tremenheeret the Vicar of Madron, comprehending the town of Penzance, amounted to no inconsiderable sum; as here follows, The Valpy family have announced such a list of words for the Greek. At an early period of the consultation, this gentleman took an opportunity of saying," Mr. Mayor! whether repaired or rebuilt this Chapel, I hope his memory will not be forgotten to whom the town is indebted for a Chapel at all, viz. an ancestor of mine, the only person that endowed the present Chapel; and I trust that his descendants will not, on such an occasion as the present, be found deficient in imitating his example." and 420 British Villages in Northumberland. and in the order in which they were Subscriptions, &c. to the New Chapel at Penzance. March 8, 1824. 1. The Corporation £1000 2. Rev. John Stephens, Rector of 100 3. Rev. C. V. Le Grice, Curate of 100 4. Rev. M. N. Peters 21 5. John Tremenheere, Esq. 6. H. P. Tremenheere, Esq. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. The same, in 13. Rev. Wm. Tremenheere, 14, 15, 16. About March 15. 17. John Stevens, Esq. 18. Mrs. Peters 19. H. P. Tremenheere, Esq. ad ditional 20. E. Giddy, Esq. Mayor March 31. 1000 21. L. Daubuz, Esq. The offer of large sums besides, without interest. Trewitt House, near Alnwick, Oct. 1. N a fishing excursion a few years ago to the river Brewish, at the foot of Greenshawhill, the lowest of the range of the Cheviots near to Linhope, in the parish of Ingram, Northumberland, I discovered the remains and foundations of circular houses, and two circles Occasionally united, as mentioned by Dion Cassius, and by Strabo, in his description of "British Villages.' had been defended on the side next to It Greenshawhill, by two deep fosses and a high rampart, and had been so extensive that nearly two miles of stone walls have been built from the ruins, whilst many large stones yet remain in the foundations, the masons having found it impracticable to remove them. The village is situated about five miles above the Roman station, at Crawley Tower, upon the same river, which is most probably the " Alanna Amnes" of Richard of Cirencester, nium, Ottadenia, Gadenia, Selgovia, who mentions six principal towns belonging to the Macta; viz. BremeSo that, altogether, there is in hand, Novantia, and Damnia, the sites of or at least forthcoming, a sum equal to only two of which have been noticed, 6000l. Now all this, Mr. Urban, hap-viz. Rochester and Howick, by Genepened a year and a half ago; and yet, to this moment, Penzance Chapel and every thing belonging to it, remains quite as it was, on the 8th of March, 1824. Monstrous! .1825.] Sir T. Baskerville.-Ancient Lord's Prayer. carried the body of St. Cuthbert to the highest of the Northumbrian mountains, where they found refuge and security." The British village is situated in an amphitheatre of high hills, and the great British road from the South, passing the East end of Simonside Hill, the road from Billingham and Elsdon to the North, and from Chew Green and Reedwater, all unite at Alnham Church (which is built in a small Roman fortlet), where it passes by the hill to Lynhope, Langlesford, and Ricknewton, at the junction of the College and Beaumont, where was the earliest grazing for flocks and herds. On the adjoining hill across the Brewish, many foundations of houses are observable, scattered over a great extent of ground. J. SMART. Mr. URBAN, Polwhele, Nov. 7. IN 315, eNp. 315 your Correspondent R, J. morials of the Baskerville family: among which we have an epitaph in memory of Sir Thomas Baskerville. Perhaps you will have no objection to insert the following, as a more complete copy of the original monumental inscription. It occurs in a MS. volume of Poems by my ancestor John Polwhele, who married a Baskerville. "In memorye of ye right worthye and valiant gentleman, Sr Thomas Baskerville, Knighte, Cheife Com'ander of her Majesties Forces in Picardye, in ye service of ye French Kynge, who deceased there the 4th of June, 1597." "These are the glories of a worthye praise, Which, noble Baskerville, heere nowe are reade In honour of thy life and latter daes, To number yee amongst the blessed dead, A pure regarde to the immortall parte, A spotless minde, a bodye prone to paine, A giving hande, and an undaunted hearte, And all these vertues voyde of all disdaine; And all these vertues yet not so unknowne, But Netherlands, Seas, Indies, Spaine, and France [owne, Can witnesse that these honours were thine Which they reserve thy merrit to advance, That valour should not perish voyde of fame, Nor noble deeds, but leave a noble name." "This monument is behinde ye high altar in ye Cathedrall Churche of St. Paul * It was destroyed at the Fire of London in 1666. 421 in London. He was my wife's neare kins- According to the family-pedigree, Mr. URBAN, Eastbourne, Oct. 11, version of the Lord's Prayer, found among some old writings in Cornwall. The manuscript appears to be of about the age of Henry the Seventh. fader in hevne santefyyd be thy name let thy kyengdom com tow uss and thy wyll be fullfylled in erthe ass byt ys in hevne grant uss ōr dayle bread & forgeve uss or trespas ass we forgeve the that have trespas us let us nosthe falle in te'tasy's but delevyr us amen haylle' marie fulle of grase ōr lord ys win the blesyd be thu above all wemen & the fret *** The concluding address to the Virgin Mary appears incomplete. Some scribbling repetitions of the commencement of the Prayer ensue, thus: "Our fader in hevyn sa Our fader." It may be well to remark, that the letter f, is not, as it afterwards was, written ff at the beginning of a word; though two lines, thus, §, one down and one up, (the origin of that ff,) are made use of in the formation of both the f and the f. The paper-mark is a shield containing three fleurs-de-lis, the arms of France. Yours, &c. Ms. URBAN, D. G. Nov. 3. AS you admitted into your last Ma gazine an article containing a most unqualified, and were it correct, a most severe censure on the last Edition of Debrett's Peerage, I trust to your fairness to insert my reply. Were I the only party interested, I should not trouble you with a word upon the subject, but quietly suffer those of your readers who are conversant with the genealogies of our Nobility to judge between the GENEALOGIST and myself: but if I were to permit an attack, so confidently worded, to remain entirely unanswered, the interests of the work entrusted to my superintendance might be in some degree affected. 422 Descendants of the Princess Mary Tudor. In the first place 1 must be allowed to quote one short passage from Mr. Genealogist's communication; it runs thus: "Speaking of the descendants of the Princess Mary Tudor, by Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk, as the last instance of the marriage of a Princess of England with a subject, p. cxxxv. he names 31 families," &c. Now, to all and sundry who have read Mr. G.'s communication in p. 286* of your last number, and who have not read the account of the Royal Family in the last Edition of Debrett, I think it necessary to protest that the above specimen of peculiar English is Mr. G.'s own; not mine. I spoke of the Princess Mary's marriage as the last instance of the kind; and of the descendants of that marriage as the nearest relatives [Nov. in blood of any English subjects to Henry Stanley, Earl of Derby. Edmund Earl of Cork and Orrery, 1825. Having thus proved that the Genealogist is wrong in four instances out of his fifteen, I might fairly apply the adage, "ex pede Herculem to his critique, and leave your readers to assign him his proper rank in the scale of Genealogical knowledge. But, as I do not pretend to infallibility, I am not ashamed, even publicly, to confess and retract an error which I am aware of having committed, and I therefore admit that in one instance the Genealogist is clearly right. Lord Torrington's name should not have been in the list. The fact is, the last Lord Torrington but one married a daughter of the Earl of Cork and Orrery; George Earl of Aber- |