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she being, as she stated, broad awake. She added, that he addressed her by the words above related; on which she uttered, "Dear son, thou art dead!" The vision immediately disappeared; and the good woman, being greatly disturbed, waked her husband, and told him what had occurred.

To this singular conjuncture, however, of dream and vision, there was no result on either side. The mother, who believed herself to be awake, was probably in a state of imperfect slumber; but that at the very moment her son was dreaming, she should see, in a vision, his identical dream acted before her, is the most striking coincidence of any in the traditions of oneirocriticism.

A writer of the day observes, that had anything of moment happened to either party in correspondence with the above dream and vision, (particularly had the son died about the time,) it might have been considered as a divine premonition. But, as neither that, nor anything else of consequence ensued, it must certainly be extravagant to suppose that any supernatural interposition had taken place. "The dreamer," he adds, "is yet (1765) alive, though the affair is now of some years' standing."

But ghosts, or ghost-stories, will never cease, as long as people can be found who are determined to believe in them, spite of reason or evidence. The following is a ludicrous instance of obstinate credulity in a ghost-seer.

The mother of a family had occasion, at a late hour, to go to the nursery, for some toilet-article left there. She was in her night-dress. One of her children, and the nursemaid, who took part of the same bed, were, as she thought, fast asleep. Fearful of waking them, she entered the apartment on tip-toe, and finding what she sought, retired, in the same noiseless manner, stopping, however, at the foot of the bed, to gaze at her infant. The servant, not having closed her eyes, saw the whole proceeding, which, simple and natural as it was, assumed, in her fancy, the character of an unearthly visitation.

"Oh, ma'am," said she, to her mistress, the following morning, "such a dreadful thing happened in the nursery last night!"

"Good heaven! what is the matter?" gasped the lady.

"Why, ma'am, I saw the spirit of my master's mother. She was all in white; glided about the room like a ghost; stopped at the foot of the bed, glared at us, and then vanished. I am sure we shall hear of her death soon."

"Nonsense!" rejoined the lady; "it was myself whom you saw. I went to the nursery for some eau-de-Cologne, and took my slippers off, that I might not disturb you and the child. You must be very fond of ghosts, to make me one before my time."

The woman looked incredulous; and not believing her mistress's explanation, propagated far and wide an account of the apparition. It was in vain that the lady tried to undeceive her, by doing, next night, the same thing, in the same dress; and even when her master's mother visited the house in good.health, the servant resolutely adhered to her belief. With some persons, truth and reason are weak, indeed, when opposed to a love of the spectral and the wonderful. To be terrified is, to them, a luxury. They can't live without what they call "a sensation." The ascending-scale of their pleasure is a wedding, a funeral, a murder, and a ghost.

THE BRITISH ARCHEOLOGISTS AT CANTERBURY.'

NEITHER the fame nor the hospitality of Canterbury of old are gone by, or extinct. True, that at the site of one of its gateways, modern cynicism has erected opposite to an old heart-shaped shield, bearing the inscription," Welcome, 1671," a recent and tasteless slab, with the ominous word, "Farewell, 1835." But, notwithstanding the questionable politeness of this indication, opposed as it is to the geniality of that of the seventeenth century, Canterbury is still itself, and, in point of feeling, as it was when pilgrims followed in the wake of the second Henry, to lay their offerings at the shrine of Becket. Its ramparts which have resisted Danes, Normans, and parliamentary forces, still struggle into sight from amidst picturesque old houses, or are moulded into public promenades. A Norman keep, and one of its old gateways, with round towers and portcullis, still remain. Its monastic and palatial ruins, rich with historical recollections of early Christianity, of wedded loves, and of pious retribution, are also to be found adorned with leering and grotesque figureheads, commemorative of the monks that loved "a fat swan best of any rost," and above all rises a cathedral no less venerable for antiquity than distinguished by its surpassing beauty and architectural excellence.

It is not to be wondered at that the archæologists of Great Britain, assembling as an association to examine the antiquities of a locality, to discuss antiquarian and historical subjects generally, to promote mutual intercourse, and to lend their aid in the preservation of monuments of olden time, should have made one of the most ancient cities of the empire-one from whence Christianity was first diffused over the land, and in and around which Roman, Saxon, Norman, and old English ruins bristle up at every point, or steal into view from the most obscure and remote corners, and which in one particular instance carry the eye through almost the whole series of changes effected by time in the features of Gothic architecture-the first point of their first experimental and successful meeting.

The great advantages, indeed, enjoyed by the archæologist is, that he has to do with local things, which, if not living, are still existing forms, appealing in mute eloquence to the eye, and to which, by the power of mind and genius, he lends life, resuscitating the past for the benefit of the present. Comparisons are proverbially insisted upon as objectionable; but it is impossible not to remark, that the perfect ease and genial sympathies of the British Archæologists, contrasted strongly with the apprehensiveness and frigidity of the assemblies of the men of science, and that in a manner highly favourable to those who had not gleaned austerity from the lessons of the past, or self-sufficiency from a successful wisdom.

It was the fancy of a distinguished modern writer, that peculiar and characteristic living forms might be supposed to spring from the variety, beauty, and grotesqueness of shapes and outlines, which belong to cathedral structures, and which succeed to one another in the dim light suffused through stained glass, or shaded by lengthening aisles and lofty arches, in such mysterious multitude; and the deformed tenant of the towers of Nôtre Dame, was the living form given to such an abstract idea. But far different, and far more practical, are our conceptions of propriety. No one could have attended the Association of British Archeologists at Canterbury, and met in harmony of intercourse with the numerous church dignitaries who came thither from all parts of England-from London, Oxford, Hereford, and St. Albans, but must have felt that such men, combining a fine simplicity of mind and warmth of feeling, with the highest intellectual attributes, were the best possible representatives of those noble edifices from whence they may be almost said to emanate; and that, unlike the learned and cloistered recluse of old,

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they lost neither in dignity nor power, by being for a moment torn away from holy precincts, to mingle with the open world.

"We ought not," said the Dean of Hereford, "in studying the relics left by the Roman invaders of this country to forget, that it was to the marriage of a British lady, Claudia, with Publius, a Roman senator, and who are both addressed by St. Paul in his Second Epistle to Timothy, that this country is indebted for the origin of Christianity and civilization." And the Archdeacon of St. Albans, comparing himself to the mediaval ages, said, he was brought into actual life by the presence of youth and beauty, as emblemed in his own daughters, who supported the presidential chair.

Such was the exquisite tone which pervaded the whole proceedings of the association; delicacy of feeling went hand in hand with the pleasures of taste and perception, and the memory of the past only heightened the conscious satisfaction to be derived from the superior civilization of actual times.

It may be truly said to have been a trying time at which to found an Archæological Association-a moment pregnant with diversity of opinion in most matters of architectural and sculptural taste; and which, in many cases, if carried to their full extent, would involve changes and revolutions of no slight amount. Thus, while one party in considering the restoration of old churches, or the interior decoration of cathedrals, would endeavour as much as possible to ensure, that in the one adequate knowledge and taste should be employed, and that in the other correct principles of art should determine the keeping and harmony of each detail with the whole; another party condemn almost all restorations as ignorantly executed, and would sweep from the interior of cathedral edifices all monuments of whatsoever character. So, also, in the details of sculpture, a difference of opinion exists. One party would adhere to what time has rendered classical; another would introduce actual costume, substituting reality for ideality, and suggesting new difficulties to be overcome, but which, as has been already shewn, are not beyond the reach of the existing art and genius of the country.

It is true, that neither mural nor other monuments of the dead, were seen in the temples of Greece or Rome. Such were not adapted for them. It is universally admitted, that the surpassing excellence and beauty of the Gothic cathedral is mainly dependent upon aggregation of details-the perpendicular lines, the breaking with tall pointed arches and lofty spires, the horizontal flats surrounding them, and the loftiness of the aspiring structures which spring from such heaping upon one another of designs, increasing in magnificence as they increase in height and extent. On the contrary, the Greek temple was horizontal; and the development of its harmonious and beautiful proportions admitted of no addition or subtraction without injury. Hence it was that the Greeks raised their sacred edifices upon platforms or hills, best suited to display to advantage their horizontal lines against the wavy outline of clouds or distant mountains. The true position of the Gothic cathedral is in the midst of picturesque old dwelling-houses, above which it rises in splendour and impressiveness. But this does not at all necessitate, as some have gone so far as to assert, that the immediate area around Canterbury Cathedral (for we are adhering strictly to locality) should not be open, as Mr. Britton has ably advocated it ought to be.

Sepulchral monuments of a strictly architectonic character, we are not afraid to say, rather add to, than take away from, the beauty of the interior of a Gothic church; nor is it at all essential that the existence of such in a sacred edifice should, among an educated people, in any way lead to saint or hero worship. If the Christian religion first admitted within the bosom of its church the monuments of those who had fought or fell in her cause, we cannot see why the same toleration may not be exhibited towards those who, by their piety or learning, have advanced her interests; or who, by honourably

defending their country, have also protected its religion. To us, the recumbent images of Archbishops Peckham and Wareham, in their long robes and mitred heads; or that of the Black Prince, lying in complete armour, on an altar tomb of grey marble, suggest in their placid repose and sculptural picturesqueness, no sentiments but those of respectful and devotional admiration. Such monuments as those of Henry the Fourth and of Joan of Navarre, his queen; of Lady Holland and her two husbands, with the customary emblem of fidelity at her feet, in St. Michael's Chapel, are to our minds at once appropriate and architectonic; and if you admit the decorated style within an edifice otherwise of Romanesque simplicity, as in the screen of Prior Henry de Estein, which separates the nave from the choir, and the florid decorations of the western transepts, you cannot object to the statueless but decorated altar tombs which adorn the eastern portion of the choir; and one of which, that of Archbishop Meopham, serves as a screen to the old Norman Chapel of St. Anselm. Neither would we bring any objections in point of appropriateness, to bear upon many other monuments of Canterbury Cathedral. The studious aspect of John Boissy, with his beard, long robes, and ruffles of the middle ages; or old Sir T. Neville, kneeling in prayer, in his coat of mail, cannot but be considered as characteristic and pleasing monuments, the effect of which is good. But such acceptance cannot be extended to all. The highly coloured and gaudy monument of Archbishop Chicele, is most unsuitable to the solemn simplicity of everything around; the fantastic heaping of skulls and bones on Dean Fotherby's monument; many of the details in the warriors' chapel-pictorial sculptures, trivial in conception and in execution, and all mere busts, being incomplete and fragmentary in character, are decidedly unarchitectonic. And although among the modern monuments, consigned without an exception to the nave, there are not many sculptural conventionalities-kneeling figures, repetitions of ancient and well-esteemed designs, or females bent over tombs in the recognised attitudes and expression of monumental grief,—still, it is to be regretfully added, that there is throughout equally little pretension or taste. With the exception of two cherubim by Rysbrack, who seem to be playing about a broken column; and a modern misery to Lieut.-Col. Stuart, there is, indeed, nothing sculptural-nothing but a long line of variously-formed mural tablets, with more or less conventional urns, and bas-reliefs, with designs familiar to every explorer of town or country churches.

Upon the subject of Canterbury Cathedral-the first and chief which presented itself to the association-an able paper was communicated by Professor Willis, in which he compared the history of the rebuilding of the choir and other portions of the cathedral by William of Sens, after the fire of 1174, as given by the Monk Gervase, with his actual examinations, and which shewed the historian to have been accurate in all his details. Professor Buckland, who for some years past has been frightening the more timid in the pursuit of science by forebodings of anticipatory earthquakes, and whose blue bag has become to many an object of serious suspicion, from being supposed to conceal portable explosive compounds, ever attendant upon the professor's movements, announced his belief that the cathedral was in daily danger of fire, from the spontaneous combustion of the exuviæ of birds, of which he had seen, at one time, as many as fifty issue from as many broken windows. Mr. Austin, the surveyor of the cathedral, naturally repudiated the possibility of such an event; but, what was more to the point, denied than any quantity of such exuvia was allowed to accumulate. Mr. Godwin, who has for some time past turned his attention to the old masonic signs which exist on hewn stones, exhibited copies of a variety which he had met with in various cathedrals in this country and on the Continent, and which he had now, also, detected in Canterbury Cathedral. The subject is one of considerable interest, as connected with the origin of free-masonry; and similar marks are met with in the edifices of antiquity in the East, in still greater numbers, and possessing greater peculiarities.

Roman antiquities, although not of so much immediate interest as those of

later times, still occupied a fair proportion of the attention of the association. After an interesting, and, under the circumstances, an important paper by Mr. S. Isaacson, on the discovery of Roman antiquities at Dym Church, which tended to shew that the Romans had a permanent station within the boundaries of Romney Marsh, and the probability of Cæsar's having landed in that direction, the Rev. Mr. B. Post read an especial memoir on the landingplace of Cæsar, in which the author advocated Folkestone as being the point of the coast first approached, and Lymne as being the point of debarkation.

The ancient port of Rhutupia, now Richborough, and supposed by many to have been the point where the Roman standard was first planted, was made the object of visit and exploration by the association. Mr. Roach Smith had previously carried on excavations, the results of which were not, however, laid before the meeting. The ruins at Richborough attest, perhaps, in as high a degree as any other Roman remains in this country the power and greatness of the invaders. A raised platform, extending 150 yards in one direction, and 158 on the other, is encompassed, except to the eastward, where the cliff has fallen down, exposing abundance of human bones and oyster-shells, by thick and lofty walls, constructed of flints and stones in courses, with Roman tiles on one side only, and the usual characteristic mortar. Oolite, travertino, and other rocks, not belonging to the neighbourhood, were also found. In nearly a central position were traces of a cruciform edifice.

The position of this castellated building was at the extreme base of the bay, and the view from the top of the walls was comprehensive and remarkable, extending, in one direction, by Sandwich, where are also Roman remains, to Deal, and on the other, by the Reculvers (the high antiquity of whose holy chapel was attested, in an interesting communication from Miss Halstead) to Ramsgate, and across its long jetty to the extremity of the North Foreland.

The nature of the coast at this point, where the alluvium has gained a considerable distance upon the sea, is equally suitable with Romney Marsh to the description given by Cæsar of the muddy and slippery character of their landing-place. The objection verbally advanced by the Rev. Mr. Barham at the meeting, as to the change which the coast has undergone since the Roman epoch, as attested by the loss of the Goodwin property, scarcely applies itself to this point, because, if admitted not to be the landing-place, still it is satisfactorily proved to have been a Roman port, and hence its condition must have been pretty nearly the same at the time of the first debarkation. The distance marched, before the Thames was passed at Kingston, would also tally; but the great, and apparently insuperable difficulty, and which the ingenuity of Archdeacon Battely has not got over, is the distances navigated after the coast was first reached, and which leaves the argument in favour of Romney Marsh, a deduction to which a further probability is now given by the discovery of the remains of a permanent Roman station at that point.

Dr. Buckland's geological heart was rejoiced, at Rhutupia, by the discovery of land-snails, which had, with the lapse of time, worn away cavities on the face of the walls. That this burrowing process was effected by the agency of an acid, was satisfactorily shewn by affixing one of the offenders to the pink ribbon of a lady antiquary's bonnet, and which it quickly changed in colour.

The little church of St. Martin's, considered by Bede to have been built by the early Christian Romans, and therefore of singular interest, was also made the object of visit. It was, unfortunately, undergoing extensive repair, whether in correct taste or not, we will not pretend to say, but we were assured, that as far as possible, every stone was replaced in its original situation. The font, in which tradition says King Ethelbert-who, by the bye, also dwelt at Rhutupia was baptized, was lying on the ground in pieces. We were disappointed with it as a piece of ornamental art; the sculptured interlacings, which were in low relief, did not possess any particular beauty.

In addition to what is here mentioned, several other papers on Roman antiquities were read, some of local interest, as on the Roman roads in Kent, by Mr. Puttock, and others, bearing upon more distant localities, by Professor Buckland, Mr. Saull, and Mr. Artis; and a great number and variety of

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