The mansions erected in the reign of Elizabeth, avoiding the sometimes gloomy character of the older domestic architecture, possess not only the comforts of the English country house, but by retracing the hall and gallery of the older structures, have sufficient space for show and grandeur. Time was when the landlord of these pleasing mansions, sitting on his dais, saw his hall crowded with happy tenants, with the same cheerfulness bringing their rents to his steward as they joined in the substantial and good cheer which covered their tables, whilst the ample kitchen welcomed the more humble class of dependants, the agricultural labourer-not a dejected discontented pauper, grinning with painful satisfaction at the fire which had devastated his master's well-stored farm-yard, but a being conscious that even he held a rank in society, feeling valued in his station, and as proud and independant in his cottage as his lord was in his mansion.

Eastbury-house presents one of the finest specimens of the Elizabethan mansions; and it is highly gratifying to see its merits are sufficiently appreciated as to be made the subject of a separate work.

Mr. Black, the author of the historical portion of the treatise before us, by the aid of documents lent to him by the present owner of the freehold, has endeavoured to trace the name of the builder; but this is, after all, a matter solely of conjecture.

Previously to the Dissolution, the site, with, perhaps, a structure of an humbler character, was the property of the Benedictine Nunnery of Barking. It was at Michaelmas, 1545, purchased, with other portions of the spoils of the abbey, by Sir William Denham, a citizen of London. He lived only three years after obtaining possession of Eastbury, and was buried in Barking church, in London. We recollected the name of Denham in connexion with this church, and on referring to our notes, found that a plain stone on the north side of the altar, without arms or effigy, had the following inscription to the memory of his wife and himself, although, according to Stow, he was not buried pursuant to this request, as conveyed on the

epitaph, but in the church-yard of All Hallows, Barking.

In this vawte here under lithe Elizabeth, late wpfe unto William Denham, Aldreman of London, and Marchaunt of the staple of Caleys, who departed unto God on Wednesday, at vˇof pe clok at after no'day, Esterweke, of pe last day of Marche, Ao di 1540.

And by pe grace of God ye said William De'ham purporteth to lie by her, who departed into God ya day of Xo di.

It does not appear that Alderman Denham was the builder of the present house, for he scarcely held the property long enough to justify the supposition of the house being erected in his time. He bequeathed the estate to his daughter, whose husband sold it, in 1557, to John Keele, who again sold it, the same year, to Clement Sisley, esq. It is not improbable that the Alderman and his successor, Keele, were mere traders in the Abbey lands, which had been originally procured from the Crown at a cheap rate, and that this Sisley was the first independent gentleman who settled upon the spot, and he, according to Mr. Black, "must claim the honour of being the author and first occupier of the new structure." He acquired the estate in 1557, and is proved, by documentary evidence, to have held it in 1575; and that he built it within that period is corroborated by a traditionary statement, that the date 1572, cut in brickwork, previously existed in the hall.

The builder having been ascertained, the historian of the mansion has little more to record. He discredits the connection of this house with the Gunpowder-plot conspirators, and traces its possessors to the present time. For nearly a century it has been reduced to the state of a farm. house, and about 50 years ago it was so much neglected, "that ever since its ruin has been hastening." At present only two rooms and the kitchen are occupied, by labourers and their families, in the employment of the present lessees.

The plan of the house shows a centre and two wings, disposed in the form of a Roman H. The elevation shows two stories above the ground-floor. The hall is in the centre: it had its dais and screen, and on the second floor in each wing is a gallery, running

the entire length of the building: that on the eastern side is painted in fresco, with figures on niches; and a large room over the hall is also decorated in a similar style. The staircases were contained in spacious octagonal towers, one of which is destroyed; the other forms an important feature in every view of the building.

The material of which the walls are constructed is red brick, "laid on English bond, so fine and firm, that every external ornament and moulding is cut on it as well as if on masonry ; and even the jambs, mullions, transoms, and labels of the windows are finely wrought in the same material, though they have since been stuccoed in imitation of stone." The house has suffered from neglect, and not addition, for scarcely a modern alteration appears in any part. An almost contemporaneous building will best assist in corroborating the traditional date of this structure. This is the hall of the Middle Temple, and, in common with Eastbury, the existence of a date, which appears a document of great value in every ancient building, has been disregarded. Some years since, the date, 1595, was to be seen there; and a Correspondent of ours snatched the brief opportunity afforded by a casual view of the frame which contained it, then lying among some rubbish, during a repair, to record its existence in our pages." The doorway within the porch had a Pointed arch, much resembling the principal entrance at Eastbury, and the detail of the architecture would, in all its parts, more closely agree with that structure if it had not suffered very greatly from injudicious alterations; although, we must admit, these evils have recently been in part remedied.

The sixteen copper-plates, from drawings and measurements of every part of the building, by Mr. Clarke, some being engraved by his own hand, and others by Mr. Stone, show the principal parts of the mansion. The elevations are boldly given, on a large scale, and the parts with the fidelity of working drawings. We do not recognise among the subjects engraved a small niche in the hall, having the appearance of a receptacle for a holy

water basin, the singularity of which renders it deserving of notice. We have no space to enter into a detailed account of these plates. Their fidelity is great, and their utility to any architect who may prefer buildings of solid materials, brick and timber, to the flimsy lath and plaster of the present day, is unquestionable. We have no hesitation in earnestly recommending this publication to our antiquarian readers' attention, feeling certain that if the publication effects for Eastbury no other benefit, it will, at least, show to posterity a faithful representation of its features, when that consummation, so much to be dreaded, shall have arrived, and this pure mansion shall exist no longer.

Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica. Parts III.-VII. Royal Octavo. WE are much pleased to observe the useful progress of this Magazine of original and sterling information, which is now approaching the close of the second volume. The copy it contains of all Dugdale's manuscript corrections to his own copy of the Baronage, would alone stamp it with a character of value. The catalogue of Monastic Cartularies, which is also now completed, is acknowledged to be an ela. borate and very useful performance; as is the list of the sales of Bishops' lands. Those abstracts of cartularies

which have been given, are fraught with information to the topographer; though it is true they are not the most interesting portion of the work to the general reader.

With respect to individual places, the principal use of this collection is, to preserve any detached fragments or stray documents which might otherwise be lost. The rule pursued by the Editors, that nothing should be inserted that has been printed before, precludes any complete topographical memoirs, nor could much in that way be effected within the limits of a quarterly Magazine; but the same regulation will greatly enhance the con

centrated value of the work as a standard book of reference, containing what is not to be found elsewhere.

been effected by the Collectanea. Among the longest articles of a general bearing, are the series of pedigrees from the Plea Rolls, and those of families related to the Blood Royal, compiled by Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter King in the reign of Henry the Seventh. Those who doubt the importance of Genealogy as an attendant on History, that is, as a key to the motives and influences operating upon the actions and fortunes of statesmen, need only look to what has recently passed before their eyes in the history of this country, in order to take a familiar illustration which will at once be intelligible to all. A north-country gentleman, of a family not previously remarkable, except for wealth arising from collieries, having become the sonin-law of a late Prime Minister, has not only been elevated to the Peerage, and shortly after to the title of Earl of that county which had previously been held sacred as an episcopal palatinate, but is now accustomed to make it his ordinary boast, that he was the author of that important Act of Parliament, which has wrought a most serious change in the constitution of the country. Now what has put forward this personage to figure thus in history? Is it not the genealogical

circumstance that he was the son-inlaw of Earl Grey, and was thus introduced to the station of a Cabinet Minister?

Why was the Duke of Somerset made Protector to King Edward VI., and his brother Lord Admiral? not from any commanding talents, but because they were the King's uncles. Why were Lord Rivers, and the Greys, and others, sacrificed by the Protector Gloucester? only because they were the King's maternal relatives. What introduced to wealth and power in England, the foreign family of Valence? their relationship to Henry III. What that of Beaumont? their relationship to Edward II. What, in the feudal ages especially, has elevated nearly every great family? we need scarcely answer their alliances. How originated a vast number of the Writs of Summons to Parliament? from the parties having married the dowagers of Earls or Barons. Or, to return to a more general view, why did one family adhere to the White Rose

and another to the Red? We shall find them connected in blood with some of the principal chieftains of their respective parties. Why was one district more devoted to the Royal cause, and another to the Parliamentarian? Why have the Roman Catholics remained numerous here, and the Presbyterians prevailed there? These and similar historical and statistical facts we shall find explained by the alliances of predominant families.

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And, if we should be told that it is only in some instances that such historical interest is found to attach to pedigrees, whilst most of them can only be interesting to the parties concerned, we answer,-then, in an ancient pedigree observe how many are concerned how widely is the blood diffused; in how many ways is one ancient house connected with another. Nearly every old family in the west of England is descended from the Plantagenets, through the Courtenays: nearly half the Peerage through the Tudors. How extensively is the founder's kin of Chicheley and of Wyckham diffused, with its concomitant advantages, an inheritance which ought to be (and we trust ever will be) esteemed a property as sacred as any other.

The additions to Dugdale's Ba ronage will, we understand, be concluded in the present volume, of which they constitute a large and important portion. Of the same class of articles are two very elaborate memoirs, one of the family of Foljambe, of Derbyshire, and the other of that of Rookwood of Suffolk, compiled in the reign of James I., besides a very curious poetical history of the family of Maunsell.

The latter part of the long memoirs of the family of Foljambe, contains copies of some curious letters and other interesting documents. Among them is a letter of Privy Seal, from Queen Elizabeth to Godfrey Foljambe, esq., in 1589, requiring a loan of 50%. towards the defence of the kingdom against the Spaniards; and a letter from the same Godfrey Foljambe to the Earl of Shrewsbury, also written in 1589, complaining of "sundry green heads in Chesterfield," who, in the previous year, had "practised divers abuses and disorders, under the pretence, colour, or name of a Lord of May," and requesting his Lordship's

assistance to prevent the repetition of "such like disordered evils."

One of the most interesting genealogical articles is that on two junior branches of the great house of Percy; the first of Beverley, and the second of Taunton and Cambridge, descended from the Gunpowder Conspirator; both here shown to have derived their descent from the fourth son of the fourth Earl of Northumberland. In these lines, and in that of the late Bishop of Dromore, male heirs of this illustrious house are shown to have existed for a hundred and forty years after the presumed extinction of the Earldom, in the reign of Charles the Second. The only legal obstacle in the way of the accession of Percy of Beverley, was the attainder of 1572, which the advisers of the Crown could have made no difficulty in removing, had he possessed sufficient acquaintance with his rights, and sufficient influence, to have urged his just claims. We do not find, however, that he troubled himself in the matter. His cousin, Mr. Francis Percy, the greatgrandson of " Gunpowder Percy," and then a "stone-cutter" of Cambridge (afterwards Mayor, in 1709), was less supine; but he failed in tracing completely his descent from the Earls. He collected, indeed, certain certificates which, in the opinion of Sir William Dugdale, to whom he submitted them, proved that he was lineally descended from Thomas Percy, the conspirator; but he derived the conspirator's parentage erroneously: in short, he made him great-grandson of the fifth Earl, instead of his greatnephew. Thus, when the Earldom became dormant, the elder heir was supine, and the junior was at fault; and, what is remarkable, a letter is preserved of Sir William Dugdale, dated 1681, advising him to forbear from urging his claims under the then existing circumstances. The King had already created one of his natural children Earl of Northumberland, and the question was otherwise under an ill odour, from the ungrounded assumptions of one James Percy, a trunkmaker, who some years after was sentenced by the House of Lords to stand in Westminster Hall, wearing a paper, designating him as A false and impudent pretender to the Earl

Such an

dom of Northumberland." example might have been enough to deter any Percy from pursuing his claim; though, on the death of Mr. Percy of Beverley, two years after this occurrence, we find the Cambridge Alderman actually became the heirmale of the family. He does not, however, appear to have taken any further steps. The royal scion (who was now Duke of Northumberland) lived until 1716; and in 1749 a new Earldom was created to the heir female of the last Earl, which is now enjoyed by the Percies, whose original patronymic was Smithson. The true descent of the Cambridge Percies, and with them that of those of Beverley, is now first published. For this highly interesting article the subscribers to the Collectanea are indebted to Mr. Young, York Herald.

This

It is followed by the will of the fourth Earl of Northumberland, communicated by the late Mr. Surtees, in which is bequeathed "to Gesselyne, my sone, lands in Sussex." Gesselyne, or Josceline, was grandfather of the conspirator. His own will is added; as is that of George Percy, the Prebendary of Beverley, whose remarkable effigy still remains in that minster. He desired to be there buried, "in insula boreali juxta tumulum D'ne Elianore de Percy," which clause fully confirms the identity of the latter, as suggested in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. c. i. 209 (where a plate of the now united monuments will be found), with that noticed in the almost parallel words of Leland, " Under (below) Eleanor's tombe is buried one of the Percy's, a priest."

There are several other wills derived from the registry of York, which were communicated by the late amiable historian of Durham. That of John Dautre, 1459, is a very extraordinary specimen of superstition. He desires to be buried before an image of Saint John, whom, before all other Saints, he had from his youth held in maximo ardoris amore, in the hope that the beatissimus Johannes might intercede with his holy prayers pro me misero Johanne. He bequeathed to his spiritual father, William Langton, a book which the blessed Richard le Scrop had, and carried in his bosom at the time of his decapitation; desiring that, after

Langton's death, it should be chained for ever near the place of rest of the said Richard. To his brother, Guy Fairfax, he bequeathed a great register which had belonged to William Gascoyne, Justice of England. Moreover, he bequeathed to the most blessed, his beloved Saint, Richard Scrope, a set of beads of coral, fifty in number, with gilt jewels, for the aid of his canonization," Quod Deus concedat pro magna gratia sua!"

In the documents relative to St. John's Hospital, Coventry, we find, in 1444, the particulars of the foundation of a bed therein, which was to be called, after its founder, " Blakeman's bed," and "to be placed in a certain part of the church of the said hospital, on the west, near the door, and near the buttery of the poor there."

The abstract of the Red Book of St. Asaph, though hastily executed (about two centuries ago, and the original is now lost), presents a good example of the contents of such episcopal registers. It seems to be a sort of common-place-book of the acts of the Bishops, chiefly of the 13th and 14th centuries, and contains several curious particulars. The text-book of the Gospels, belonging to the church of St. Asaph, commonly called "Erenegylten, is twice mentioned. The silver plate of Bishop Anian, in the 13th century, is enumerated; as, "13 discos magnos, 3 mediocres, 6 sauceria magna, 11 parva." In 1295 we find this remarkable provision, on account of the wars; that the Canons, by two and two, should appoint between them one Vicar; that four Priests should live in one house, and live on common provisions. On the same account Bishop Anian petitioned the Pope to remove the see of St. Asaph from the plain, to a place where the noble King Edward had provided a site well defended with ditches and towers. This was the castle of Ruddlan. In an ordination for the cathedral service, made in 1296, it was provided, inter alia, that, besides the matins, canonical hours, and vespers, there should be daily sung in the choir, two masses-the great mass, and that of the blessed Virgin. Particular attendances were assigned, as at present, to the holders of certain stalls and benefices. The Archdeacon was to

provide one priest or layman, bene cantantem et ad organa ludentem, aud two of the Prebendaries were to find four boys, bene cantantes, called “queresters." Another Prebendary was to pay 10s. annually to the augmentation of the salary of the water-carrier, who was to be present daily in the church, with the other servants, during the times of divine service.

There are some passages of equal curiosity in another article, the Annals of Crokesden Abbey. In 1268 the Abbat bought, for fifty marks, a Bible, in nine volumes, optima glosatam, by Salomon, Archdeacon of Leicester. In 1294, on account of the war with Gascony, the merchants did not buy the wools of England, and the monks, consequently, could hardly sell theirs at seven marks a pack. In 1313, when the great bell of the monastery was broken, Master Henry Michel of Lichfield came to found another, and after working at it with his boys from the octaves of the Trinity to the nativity of the Virgin (that is, for about twelve weeks), failed in the casting, and lost all his labour and expense. He had evidently taken the work, as usual, by contract. However, having recommenced his work, for which he provided a great portion of new brass and tin, he finished his business about the feast of All Saints, that is, in two months more.

With these slight extracts we must conclude, bidding the editors and contributors to the work to proceed and prosper.

THE ANNUALS.

The Book of Beauty, edited by LADY BLESSINGTON.-We hesitated for many a hour to whom, among the rival beauties who adorn this volume, we should award the golden prize. In fancy we supposed ourselves seated like the Shepherd of Ida, (the engraver standing like Mercury at our elbow), and the resplendent goddesses of Almack's advancing to put forth their claims. The Countess of Wilton spoke most persuasively, and we hesitated but her face was not quite oval enough for our taste, and there was a little heaviness about her chin. Lady Elizabeth Levison-Gower we could not get a sight of, the dressmaker and perruquier having so concealed her in their works. Helen's hands were so large, as to make her high descent and noble blood very doubt

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