The tessellated pavement in Long Smith Street is an instance of Gloucester antiquarian zeal. Before Mr. Disney could interfere, before a drawing could be made or a note taken, a great part of the elaborate border had been broken with a pickaxe, and sold bit by bit to people who ought to have known better. It is satisfactory to relate that this wholesale destruction of a work of art was stopped in time to prevent its utter annihilation, and we hope soon to present our readers with a drawing of it, as well as of some very interesting fragments of ornamental pottery that have since been found. By the time the sewerage is completed it will be possible to form a correct idea of the plan and extent of ancient Glevum, a subject which has occupied our attention for some time. Mediæval remains are abundant, but have not revealed any new facts. The foundations of the old High Cross, of Allhallows and Trinity Churches, and of old St. John's, were exposed. The destruction of Trinity Church in the latter part of the last century was a piece of Vandalism almost without a parallel. It was a fine structure, with a lofty tower, and stood close by, or on the immediate site of, the ancient temple of Claudius, the rock-like walls of which were evidently a part of its basement. The church had suffered in the Civil Wars, but the tower still stood, and, though desecrated by its conversion into an engine-house, was a beautiful object in the long antique street. But the powers that were thought it otherwise, and it was totally demolished. When will the people learn to reverence the remains of antiquity, and to prevent their wanton destruction? Keats sings that A thing of beauty is a joy for ever; and this may be applied to works of art as well as natural objects. A man who has bestowed time and thought on the execution of a grand painting, a noble statue, or an exquisite piece of architecture, has in fact created an object which, as long as it lasts, is calculated to delight, and, if properly viewed, to improve the human race, and has a right to expect that posterity will cherish and protect the work on which he has spent time and talent that no present applause or pecuniary gain can ever repay. And we maintain that the demolition or ill-usage of such productions is only second in barbarity to maiming the human figure or wantonly disfiguring a beautiful animal. And, whatever scoffers may say, there is something in the remains of antiquity which we seek for in vain in modern work. A fragment of a Roman column neglected and decayed fills us with emotions that the smoothest Ionic or most dapper Corinthian of a fashionable portico would evoke in vain; and the modern architect with rule and measure may endeavour to "restore" the parish church or timehonoured cathedral; but, when he has done his best, will find that he has merely destroyed with the beauty of its grey stones and lichen-covered walls whatever of historic interest may yet linger about the ancient pile. Had our ancestors done their duty, there would have been no need for "restoration," and, if we do ours, we may yet preserve those relics of art which a former race have left us as records of their power and their genius. GENT. MAG. VOL. XLII. 2 K THE STANLEYS, EARLS OF DERBY. The Stanley Papers. Parts I. and II. Printed for the Chetham Society: viz.1. The Earls of Derby and the Verse Writers and Poets of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. By Thomas Heywood, Esq. F.S.A. 1853. such productions has been swept aside among other ephemera of the past, and and they are only to be recovered by much patient assiduity and research, and often by a liberal outlay from the purse: requiring in conjunction the zeal of the collector and the intelligent criticism of the bibliographer and literary antiquary.* 2. The Derby Household Books; comprising an account of the Household Regulations and Expenses of Edward and Henry, third and fourth Earls of Derby; together with a Diary containing the names of the Guests who visited the latter Earl at his houses in Lancashire: by William Farington esquire, the Comptroller. Edited by the Rev. F. R. Raines, M.A. F.S.A. Hon. Canon of Manchester, Rural Dean of Rochdale, and Incumbent of Milnrow. 1853. THE STANLEYS, though not one of our oldest, may now fairly claim the honour of being one of our most historical families. Having first taken a prominent position when Thomas Lord Stanley married the dowager Countess of Richmond, the mother of King Henry the Seventh, and assisted to elevate her son to the throne, and thereby obtained for himself and his posterity the proud old Earldom of Derby (last held by King Henry the Fourth before his accession), they have since maintained their pre-eminence by a long series of illustrious alliances, and by an unwearied course of devoted loyalty to the Crown, and important services to the commonwealth; by brilliant eloquence in the Senate, and by princely benefits conferred upon science and literature. The former of the two books whose titles are placed at the head of these remarks differs in character from any we have before met with. We are not aware that any historical writer has hitherto collected his materials chiefly, if not entirely, from the literary tribe whose business it was, like that of the ancient bard, To heap the shrine of luxury and pride Indeed, it would occur to few that A more than usual caution and discrimination is requisite in the use of such materials, for it was the especial privilege of the bard to embellish as well as to chronicle the deeds of his lords. Mr. Heywood notices a "mixture of truth and fiction" in the first and principal epic of the Stanleys; whilst another, which affects to describe the continental tours of the sixth Earl, is little more than a fiction founded upon the popular reputation of that nobleman as a traveller. The Stanleys found in one of their own race their chief poetical historian, who wrote their history in immortal verse early in the reign of Elizabeth. This was Thomas Stanley, who became Bishop of Sodor and Man. His work was published by Seacome † in 1741, and again by Mr. Halliwell recently in his "Palatine Anthology." Mr. Heywood gives the following account of this production : The commencement of the history is oc cupied in dwelling on the pleasure afforded by such an undertaking, and, although the verse is not of remarkable smoothness, yet it hardly furnishes an apology for Seacome's mistake, who has printed the first fifty lines as prose! The reverend versifier *Mr. Heywood's essay was first printed in 1825, and has now been enlarged and elaborated for the Chetham Society. + Mr. Heywood, though he makes several allusions to Seacome, does not describe his book secundum artem. It is a quarto volume entitled "Memoirs of the House of Stanley," of which the Bishop's poetical legend forms a part. It was first printed in Liverpool in 1741; another edition was published at Manchester in 1767, a third in 1783, and a fourth at Preston in 1793. It has evidently been a popular book in Lancashire. rehearses how Stanley sprang from Audley, and then shows the manner in which his ancestors became the possessors of Stourton and Hooton. He dwells upon the joust betwixt the Admiral of Hainault and Sir John Stanley, the second brother of the house of Stanley of Hooton, in which the Englishman not only won renown, but received from the king to his hire Wynge, Trynge, and Ivynge in Buckinghamshire. The good knight, thus enriched, sallies forth in quest of adventures; and here it may be remarked that the moving accidents which befall him have been liberally used to adorn the "Garland" of his descendant William Earl of Derby. Sir John Stanley visits the court of France, then passes to that of the Great Turk, and thence, after a rhapsody on the superiority of greatness achieved by arms over that resulting from pens, ink, and paper," he is described as proceeding to the assistance of Sir Robert Knowles, in the invasion of France, whence, after threatening Paris, he returns to receive the praises of King Henry the Fourth. The poet now arrives at a period of his history when an event occurred advancing this soldier of fortune to a condition much above that in which his family had hitherto moved. The second fit begins with some particulars of the Lord of Latham in Lancashire, whose daughter became enamoured of the valiant Sir John Stanley, and sent to tell him of her love. He is made very prudently to inquire the condition of the lady, and, finding her in every respect a desirable person, Her father oulde, and she his undoubted heire, he condescends to encourage her advances. The Lord of Latham, however, opposes the match as unequal; but Within short space after he stole her away, Or she stole him, I cannot tell you whether. The father is presently reconciled, and, departing this life, bequeaths his vast possessions to be the foundation of the future greatness of the Stanleys. The remainder of the knight's life is briefly set forth; the obtaining the Isle of Man, a second campaign in France, and his proceeding Lord Deputy to Ireland, where he died. This Sir John Stanley was the founder of the family of the Earls of Derby, and, although his descendant assigns to him the accomplishment of many incredible things, there is sufficient ground to believe that he was one whose memory his successors cherished with justifiable pride. The son of this brave man is dismissed by the Bishop with slight notice. The feats of "young Tom," as the second Lord Stanley is somewhat familiarly styled, are even more barbarously dealt with than those of his ancestors, whilst the same mixture of truth and fiction pervades the narrative. He is described as burning the town of Kirkcudbright at eighteen years of age, and marching to Edenborough with banners displayed With Eagle and Child, fair flapping in the wind, and the merit of taking Berwick is assigned solely to his exertions. The battle of Bosworth, and the subsequent elevation of the Stanleys, next occupy the versifier. The accession of power thus obtained by this house renders an account of its future fortunes an easy task. The Bishop, however, avoids the beaten road, and with a pardonable vanity dwells on the lives of his more immediate kinsmen the Lords Monteagle, and concludes with the battle of Flodden. Bishop Stanley's Metrical Chronicle was re-written and amplified in the reign of James the First, by R. G., a clergyman of Chester, whose version, preserved among Cole's MSS. in the British Museum, Mr. Halliwell has edited in his Palatine Anthology, 1850. The other poem to which allusion has already been made is entitled "Sir William Stanley's Garland: containing his twenty-one years' travell through most parts of the world, and his safe return to Latham Hall." The hero of this ballad was afterwards the sixth Earl of Derby, from 1594 to 1642. Its author is not known, nor does Mr. Heywood give the date of its original edition. It was reprinted at Leeds in 1814. The writer indulges his invention greatly, and commits the grossest anachronisms; yet his stanzas are not devoid of interest. There is still another poem of an historical character which is intimately connected with the history of the house of Stanley. It is called "The pleasant Song of Lady Bessy," and is supposed to have been written by Humphrey Brereton, an esquire of the household of Thomas first Earl of Derby. It is therefore older than either of the poems we have already described, though of the two manuscripts now preserved of * Mr. Heywood has printed this word "Wapping," with a capital letter. If the correct word be " wapping," we presume the sense is the same as the modern word we substitute.-Rev. |