remains of a thrivelled body. The grand Saracenic arch of this ftructure is fill in being, which is the original door into the circle. It has fuffered little by time, as it is fecured from the effects of weather by being under the roof of the paffage leading into the cloifters. This portal has three exterior mouldings above the arch. There are various enrich ments of foliage interfperfed, and Saracenic fubadjuvant columns, of an inferior module, executed in the immature tafte of that age. But the principal objects here, and which gave rife to the prefent obfervations, are the half-length figures on each fide of the door. Immediately under the exterior moulding is the halflength of Henry II. and oppofite to him that of his Queen, Eleanor, on the other fide. The King has a roll in his hand, the grant of the right to erect and confecrate the church. Near his figure are thofe of three Knights Templars, who hold the fame kind of roll in their hands, fignifying their being in poffeffion of the Royal Fiat. Among the figures on the Queen's fide is that of Heraclius the patriarch, in the attitude of praying, with the hands clofed; and the other figures near him feem to be priefts, in the fame devout pofture. The figures are very perfect, and it would be almoft a proof of deficiency in fight, to fay that they have been impaired by time. Thefe obfervations are fubmitted to the confideration of those who delight in thefe refearches; as I do not know that they have at any time before invited the attention of thofe who court the chafte embraces of blufhing Art: and they are fo difpofed that they may eafily efcape an indufirious as well as a superficial obferRUBEN D'MOUNDT.

vation.

THE PICTURE GALLERY, N° II. Effex, June 20.

MR. URBAN,

A Correfpondent in your laft Maga

zine wishes a defcription of particular portraits to be added to the amufing articles it generally contains. I beg leave to open your Picture-Gallery with an account of a portrait, on the plan of your correfpondent, bought for a few hillings at a country fale, and which has probably no other merit, though en. tirely in the style of Holbein, than beng a ftrong likeness of some very eminent petfonage. The picture, which is on wood, is within a coarse common frame, full fixteen inches high, and thirteen wide; the features ftrong, large,

and very expreffive; brown hair, and frizzed beard; dark complexion; the round hat or cap ornamented with some fort of edging, and, probably, pearls, hangs a little backward from the forehead, and declines over the right ear: the thirt clofe gathered and quilled, but not in the fashion of a projecting ruff, round the neck, from which hangs a fmall gold chain, that unites with a ribbon at the breaft, and to this is appendant a tranfparent globe, fet in a circu lar cafe, furmounted with a cross, and pierced with two fwords, croffing each other. This, which is undoubtedly the coat of arms, is in a larger fize, at the corner of the picture, and there the cross has over it, I guess, a ducal coro net, and round the globe passes a label, on one end of which are the letters F F G, on the other S T. The habit feems a tawney-coloured gown, turning back from the bofom, ornamented with fur, and a large chain hanging over the fhoulders: a yellowish veft, underneath, is buttoned close upon the ruffles that cover the wrifts. The left hand has rings on the fecond, fourth, and fifth fingers, and juft fuftains, as it reclines. upon the whole arm, which makes the bafe of the picture, a fort of longofcep tre, or very ornamented staff of honour or office. The right hand has rings on the fourth and fifth fingers, and holds a roll, on which are the letters D E F, and a mark or two beneath, to reprefent, probably, more writing.-I cannot perceive any thing elfe, as I am entirely ignorant of painting, to regulate the conjecture which, I cannot but furmife, it much deferves, about this portrait. Yours, &c. ↑ RUSTICUS.

MR. URBAN,

T

HE coin exhibited in your last month's Mifcellany, fig. 5, is neither more nor lefs than a coin of the

emperor Allectus. The infcription:

IMP. C. ALLECTVS. P. F. AVG.
Rev. PAX AVG. S. P. C.

A female figure (not with a fox's head, as your draughtsman or engraver has given it) ftanding, holding in her right hand a branch of olive, in her left a fpear.

No 6 belongs to the emperor Valentinian. The legend is,

D. N. VALENTINIANVS. P. F. AVG. SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE. SISC. P. A. N. T. г. or A.St.

A Victory, holding in her right a crown of laurel, in her left a palm branch. Admitting

Admitting that your old friend forgot himfelf in reprefenting the ftatue of Peter the Great, in your February Magazine, as cut out of marble instead of caft in brafs, he knew better than to confound the Rhodians with the Coloffans, to whom St. Paul wrote his epiftic. His authority for faying that the Rhodians had the name of Colofians, or rather Coloffals, from their Cologus, was Cedrenus, as cited by Meurus.

AQ's (xchoco8) was a (or Pedios)

ΚΟΛΟΣΣΕΙΣ ωνομάσθησαν. And Suidas: Podos n voros' mhis xa Arδος καλαίαν, και ΚΟΛΟΣΣΑΕΙΣ οι οπ κήτορες για τον καλούσαν. See alfo Glycas, Annal. II.

Though Meurfius feems to have exhaufted the fubject of this Coloffus by his quotations, yet he has omitted the eircumftance of its ftanding across the harbour of Rhodes, and the largeft fhips failing in between its legs; to which our Shakspeare may be fuppofed to allude, when he compared Cæfar to it:

he doth beftride the narrow world Like a Coloffus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs, &c. &c.

It were to be wished that fome of your learned correfpondents, fkilled in ancient hiftory, would point out the authority for this affertion.

There is no coin ftruck at Rhodes with the Coloffus represented on it, nor with any allufion to that figure.

Your correfpondent in p. 498. needs not be told that the word in Pf. lviii. ver. 4. in our Bibles, is uniformly JAH, and Bp. Patrick retains this reading in his Commentary. In the LXX. edit. Daniel, it is KYPIOE ovopa AYTOY. In the Vulgate it is "Dominus nomen "illi." Our finging Pfalms have "Ex"tol the great Jehovah's name."

As I aufwer for no more languages than I understand, your correfpondent may not think he has got near enough to the original. For myfelf, I am of opinion, that what he complains of is only a prefs error, neglected for near 150 years.

MR. URBAN,

You

OUR correfpondent OTHO, (vol. LII. p. 479) in his fhort memoirs of General Ginkle (Earl of Athlone), mentions his not knowing whether that famous Dutch officer had any grant of lands in Ireland. He certainty had, out of the forfeited eftates, and to the

amount of 26,480 acres, if the report made by the trustees to the Houfe of Commons was accurate. The Earl, however, foon alienated the cftate, probably because he never intended to refide in Ireland, and the grant was afterwards revoked by Parliament, to the great difcredit of the factious promoters of the bill, according to the following reprefentation of the circumftances of the cafe by Bp. Burnet, in the Memoirs The cafe of the Earl of Athlone's of his own Times, under the year 1700. grant (obferves the prelate) was very fingular: the Houfe of Commons had, been fo fenfible of his fervice in reduc ing Ireland, that they had made an addrefs to the King, to give him a recompence fuitable to his fervices. And the Parliament of Ireland was fo fentible of their obligations to him, that they, as was formerly told, confirmed his grant of between two and three thoufand pounds a year. He had fold it to thofe who thought thev had purchased under an unquestionable title, yet all that was now fet afide, no regard being had to it."

MR. URBAN,

July 17. W WITHOUT doubt you have heard that a bill was lately brought into parliament to enable the heads of certain colleges to marry. In the number the warden of Wadham College was included. By the ftatutes of the foundrefs, the warden is always to be a bachelor. The common reafon affigned for the injunction is, that the foundrefs had a mind to the firft warden, and that he rejected her fuit, which fo much difpleafed her, that he was refolved to punish all the future wardens for the fault of one man. A more foolish reafon could not have been given. The fact is, Nicholas Wadham and his wife were both of them inclined to the Catholic religion, which (it is well known) enjoins celibacy to the clergy; and it was on this account that the warden was] commanded to lead a fingle life.Authony Wood, in his Hiftory, tells us, that Nicholas Wadham had a 1 intention to found a college at Veni for inftructing English youths in the doctrines of popery, fiquidem ipfe juxta "et uxor Dorothea Pontificiorum in "partes propenfiores funt habiti." Befides, the ftatutes were tranfmitted to Oxford by the foundrefs on Aug. 16, 1612, before the buildings were finished, and the warden and fellows were

not

tot appointed till April 20, 1613. →→→ Dorothy was 75 years old at the death of her husband, and there can be no resion to fuppofe that at that age the would look with amorous eyes on any me. Robert Wright, the firft warden, voluntarily quitted his office becaufe the foundrefs prohibited his marrying, and afterwards became bifhop of Lichfield and Coventry. If any one doubts the truth of what I have advanced, I beg leave to refer him to Wood's Hiftory of the University of Oxford, and to the menament of Nicholas Wadham in the church of Ilminster in Somersetshire.

- Yours, &c.

B. R.

P. S. I have a few other things to communicate to you, Mr. URBAN, by way of appendix to the foregoing letter. The defign of founding a college at Oxford is not to be attributed to Dorothy Wadham folely, as her husband direct ed it in his wit; though, I apprehend, the endowment and the ftatutes were in a great meafure left to her. She fur vived her husband nine years, and after her death a monument was erected in liminfter church to the memory of both. It was once very beautiful, but its chief ornaments are at prefent disfigured by naftiness. Those who live through the bouncy of Wadham would fhew their gratitude to hts memory in expending a little money on his tomb. I would recommend the example of Merton and Exeter Colleges, both of which focieties have preferved the tombs of their founders from destruction. The manfionhoufe of Nicholas Wadham, at Moreheld, was deftroyed by fire 40 or 50 years ago. It was a noble building, defended by a moat.-How many curious circumstances are unknown for want of a "Hiftory of Somerfetfhire!" The churches alone in that county, which are built in the most beautiful style of the florid Gothic, would afford the finest field for an antiquary.

Maranus, whofe edition I ufe, would amend it by reading en weducas, qui montes fontem effecit; but this does not fatisfy, as the difficulty does not lie in the former, but in the latter part of the fentence, the vocal fountain the author peaks of. Many waters were anciently imagined to speak, Euftath. femen. p. 390, 394, a river faluted Pythagoras, when he was cróffing it, Kufter. and Jamblich. Vit. Pythag. c. 28; but what is this to Hercules? The words don't apply to any known ftory we have concerning him. Look into Euripides, Seneca the Tragedian, Apollodorus, Antoninus Liberalis, and the rest of the mythologists who have occafion to treat of this hero, and I believe you will not find any one fyllable that this paffage can poffibly be fuppofed to allude to, in all their accounts of Hercules: no, not even though you should interpret udwg, by a metonymy of a water-r mph, the goddess of the fream, fince ftill we know nothing of Hercules's purfuing any nymph, in that manner, as Apollo did Daphne. To be short, Mr. URBAN; as the words are plain, and, in all ap pearance, not to be either corrected, or figuratively explained, what are we to do? how are we to understand this intricate place Now, Sir, I look upon Hercules, with my learned friend Mr. Bryant, to be entirely a fictitious' perfon, a Jack the Giant Killer of the anci ents and as tirere were, as it is faid, no less than 43 of them, every country. had their own fables and ftorics concerning him, which other places were not acquainted with. Jufiin Martyr was of Palefine, an Afiatic confequently; wherefore I incline to think there is an allufion in this paffage to fome ftory about Hercules which was abfolutely unknown in Greece, and to their my thologifts and poets, but current enough in thofe parts where Jeftin refided. See Phurnarus, cap. 17, initio. And fo Montfaucon writes, (Antiq. expl. T P. 1,8) Every country, and almost

every city, efpecially in Greece, had "fome particular ftory of Hercules, "which was always told variously By "the different authors that mention "it." If it was fo in Greece, muchi more may we expect to find variations in different and diftant countries, and even facts, exploits, and relations, in one region, which were never heard of in another.

Yours, &c.

T. Row. P. S.

P. S. Your correfpondent S. E. in your laft Magazine, p. 498, wishes to know upon what authority I afferted, that the Rhodians were called Coloffans: I answer, that of Cedrenus, Suidas, Glycas, and the fcholiaft upon Dionyfius the geographer. The words of the three former are adduced by Meurfius, p. 46.

The perfon, who calls himself A Founder, in your Magazine, p. 307, charges me, falsely, with prizing the merit of Monf. Falconet but little; for, on the contrary, I highly extolled it, my words being, "that his ftatue was a moft capital performance, both as to bulk and the noble conception of Monf. "Falconet." But this Founder confounds every thing, hardly allowing a perfon that cafts a fatue, to be a fatuary. He doubts whether the whole fi gure were caft at once; but the words of Sextus Empiricus, cited by Meurfius, imply as much: the verfions runs, Ipfe vero [Chares] câ fummâ in initium impensâ, et defcriptionem for46 ma, fe occidit." But I have done with this caviller.

S. E. obferves, I am miftaken in thinking the ftatue of Peter the Great was cut out of a block of marble. I was led to that idea by Mr. Tooke, who so often talks of fculptor and feulpture, which feem more applicable to carved ftatues than caft ones. How ever, if I have erred, I ask pardon.

MR. URBAN, July 23. You YOUR correfpondent F. Y. in p. 480 of your laft Magazine, is at a lofs to account 66 Why the generality of "afh and oak trees, in the hedge-rows, "have put forth their leaves at the top "of them this fpring, whilst the under "branches are not yet in leaf." He thinks it is from the coldness of the earth this year, by the froft remaining fo long in it. In this conjecture he is wide of the mark. The true reafon is, that in the evening of Sunday the 25th of May there was a very fevere froft, which deftroyed all the hoots of thofe trees which were then budding forth.The afh, walnut, and fome oak trees, were at this time putting forth in the ́lower branches, which are always the forwardeft, as being neareft the root. Thefe, by the froft, were all destroyed, turned black, and dried away. The

Our correfpondents feem to have confounded the brafs ftatue, which was certainly catt, with the immenfe rock on which it is placed, EDIT,

upper parts of the trees not having put forth their fpring-fhoots, were not hurt; fo that when the warm weather came, thefe branches continued to grow, and their leaves firft appeared; whilft the lower branches, which had been hurt by the froft, were not able to recover the check they had received for two or three weeks, until Nature was powerful enough to fend forth new fhoots. As the walnut tree bears its fruit at the end of the new fhoot, for the reason I have given, there will be very little fruit, and that very late and fmall; and, if the feafon is not fine, in October scarcely any will be ripe. A. C. C.

I

MR. URBAN, July 4. Cannot affirm upon my own positive knowledge, but firmly believe, that the elegant Veries on Godftow Nunnery, in your Mag. p. 462, are by the Archbishop of York; but what surprises me is, to find the two laft lines, which I have always been taught to think the fineft, entirely left out, whether from carcleffness, or, as moft probable, from their being an addition, I cannot tell, nor have I time to enquire. The thefis is, "An omne ruat in pejus?" or fomething like it. The writer is ftanding at Godftow (which he defcribes) with a full view of Oxford before him; and he concludes, with all the feeling of a virtuous young man come down the water to relax after his morning conference with Thucydides and Plato, Fors et tempus erit cum tu, Rhedicina, fub afiris

Edita, cum centum turribus ipfa cades. Which I leave the tranflation of to your elegant correfpondent.

TUI FAVORIS STUDIOSISSIMUS.