Mr. URBAN,

THE

March 1. HE following is an extract of a Letter from Colonel Taylor to William Marsden, esq. dated Windsor, 7th Nov. 1805. It strongly pour trays the excellent character of our late revered Monarch George III. shewing how highly he appreciated the splendid talents of our immortal Nelson, and how deeply he deplored his irretrievable loss, after the glorious victory of Trafalgar. E. P.

"His Majesty has commanded me to express, in the strongest terms, his feelings of approbation of every part of the conduct of his gallant feet, under the distin guished and lamented Commander in Chief, whose glorious and meritorious exertions are made yet more conspicuous, if possible, by the details of the opposition and difficulties the squadron had to encounter during that distinguished action." "Every tribute of praise appears to His Majesty, due to Lord Nelson, whose less he never can sufficiently regret."

"Victory, at Sea, March 10, 1805. "My dear Lord,

I enclose some remarks made by Captain Layman whilst he was in **** after the very unfortunate loss of that fine sloop, which your Lordship was so good as to give him the command of. Your Lordship will find the remarks flow from a most intelligent and active mind, and may be useful should any expedition take place against *****.

"And, my dear Lord, give me leave to recommend Captain Layman to your kind protection; for, notwithstanding the Court Martial has thought him deserving of cen

sure for his running in with the land, yet, my Lord, allow me to say that Captain Layman's misfortune was perhaps conceiving that other people's abilities were equal to his own, which indeed very few

people are.

fear the shore, for hardly any great things "I own myself one of those who do not are done in a small ship by a man that is; therefore I make very great allowances for him indeed his station was intended never to be from the shore in the Streights, and if he did not every day risk his sloop, he would be useless upon that station.

"Captain Layman has served with me in three ships, and I am well acquainted with his bravery, zeal, judgment, and ac tivity, nor do I regret the loss of the Raven compared to the value of Captain Layman's services, which are a national loss.

"You must, my dear Lord, forgive the warmth which I express for Captain Lay. man, but he is in adversity, and therefore has the more claim to my attention and regard.

"If I had been censured every time I have run my ship, or fleets under my com mand, into great danger, I should long the House of Pers.

ago have been out of the service, and never

"NELSON & BRONTE. "Viscount Melville."

Mr. URBAN, March 0. Wix Letter to the Bishop of St. N your Reviewer's account of Mr. David's (p. 152), there is a passage, which appears to me likely to mis lead an inexperienced Reader. The Reviewer says, "We perfectly believe Mr. Wix to have had the best intention, and we know, in justification of him, that Popery and Protestantism are not so much distinguished by differences, as by the simple proceeding, in the latter, of omissions. Amputation, pruning, rubbing-off lichens and mosses, were the chief processes used in the Reformation."

The differences between Popery and Protestantism are much greater

than

than your Reviewer represents them. The differences are so great, that Latimer, Cranmer, Ridley, and many others, who perfectly knew what Popery was, chose rather to suffer death at the stake, than to conform to it. If an unlearned Protestant were asked, why have you such an abborrence of Popery? he might very justly answer, Because it was abhorred by Latimer, Cranmer, and Ridley;-because they "resisted it unto death," because they "gave their bodies to be burned," rather than continue in it-and because our Church says, that the idolatry, which it practises, is "to be abhorred of all faithful Christians." The sacrifice of life, and the strong language of our Liturgy, were not the effects of irritation and resentment, but of the most deliberate and pious conviction.

But to return to your Reviewer. He states the Churches of England and Rome are distinguished not so much by differences, as by omissions! The omissions" are the very "differences," which distinguish the two Churches. The doctrines and usages England contain the essential differences, on account of which our martyred Reformers laid down their lives.

The Reviewer represents our Reformation as the mere removal of lichens and mosses, that is, excrescences, exterior to the substances on which they are found. In this he is greatly mistaken. The corruptions of the Church of Rome, abolished by the Reformation, were not superficial matters of indifference, but the very essence of Popery, such as its idolatry in the sacrifice of the mass, and the idolatrous doctrine of transubstantiation, which led to it; its idolatry in the invocation of Saints; its "blasphemous tables and dangerous deceits," in the doctrine of purgatory, &c. These corruptions of the Romish Church are, unhappily, so far from being mere "lichens and mosses," that they are articles of faith, which the Roman Catholick Clergy, and all converts to Popery *, are sworn to maintain to the last moment of their lives.

* See the "Ordo Administrandi Sacramenta," p. 56. published by Keating, London, 1812.

I will only observe further, that the question, whether the invocation of Saints, included in the Declaration against Popery, is idolatry or not, is not simply a matter of opinion and dispute between the Bishop of St. David's and Mr. Wix, but is a criterion of doctrine, which distinguishes Protestants from Papists, and is, therefore, as well as transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the mass, an effectual test of Popery. These are the offences against true religion, which make the state of the Church of Rome to be "so far wide from the nature of the true Church, that nothing can be wider t."

But the Reviewer will, perhaps, form a correcter view of the impracticability of the projected union, as well as of some of the pernicious tendencies of its proposal, if, in addition to the Protestant objections, which have been made to it, he will read a Tract by Mr. M'Dermot, a Roman Catholick, on the subject, published by Keating, 1819. S. T. P.

Magazine for February, under the head of Lucky Hits, p. 127, appears not to have been aware that the copy of Geyler's Navicula Fatuorum 1510, sold by Mr. Saunders, of Fleet-street, for 6s. to Mr. Boone, was not only imperfect in several places, but was so stated on the first leaf, and by the auctioneer at the sale. Mr. Edwards's copy certainly brought 427. but it was from the circumstance of two unlimited commissions crossing each other. Since the fever of that time several copies have occurred in the sales, and the last was sold in 1819, at Mr. King's, for 2l. 10s. The copy imported by me last year had been purchased at Sandras' sale for 11 francs, and was bought at the usual price on the Continent (24 francs).

The only use to be made of the copy in question would be in the perfecting another. I have been led to give these particulars, as from the statement in your pages it would lead a person unacquainted with the fact to suppose that it had escaped observation. R. TRIPHOOK.

+ Homily for Whitsunday, Part II. ACCOUNT

rare."

VI. STATUES OF BARBARIAN PRISONERS.

"We see (says Visconti, pp. 3, 4) by the costume of these colossal figures, of which the draperies are executed in porphyry, that they represent some Barbarian Princes, who had adorned the triumphs of some Roman Emperor of the third century, for the style of the execution denotes this period. The heads and the arms, of white marble! are restorations of the 17th century." The constant costume of Barbarians upon ancient monuments are anaxyrides, or loose Turkish trowsers, and a bonnet, crooked forward, like the Phrygian. In this marble we see the bad effects of injudicious restoration.

VII. LUCIUS VERUS. A Colossal Bust. His head is covered with a fold of the toga, and crowned with wheatcars, according to the costume of the Fratres Arvales in the rite of sacrificing. (Visconti, p. 4.) In the Villa Borghese (says Winckeluran, Art. 6, 7) are three busts of Lucius Verus; one of extreme beauty, larger than life. The most rare head, a portrait of him in his youth, is at the Ruspoli Palace. There is also a bust at the Capitol. Of the three at the Villa Borghese, two are copies. In the Florentine Museum is a statue found at Palestrina, to which is adopt ed a head of Verus, taken from a bust of the Villa Mattei; and another bust found near the Porta Major. The French Museum has three busts; one taken from the Ducal Palace of Modena; another, from the Villa Albani; and this, which was before at the Chateau d'Ecouen.

VIII. ANTONINUS PIUS. A Colossal Bust. It is in the same costume as the preceding article (Visconti, p. 4), and came from the same place. His portraits are common. There is a bust at the Capitol; another at the Florentine Museum. Colossal heads are to be seen at the Palaces Farnese and Borghese, and at the Castle of S. Angelo. A head from Adrian's Villa is in the Pio-Clementine Museum.

IX. JUPITER SERAPIS. A Colossal Head. Paganism has sometimes confounded this God with the Sun; at other times with Pluto. The hair of the head is that of Jupiter; the Modius, or bushel, which surmounts it, is a symbol of the benevolent deities, and an attribute of Serapis. (Visconti, p. 4.) All the figures of Jupiter Serapis are of the later ages, not older than the Ptolemies. (Macrob. Suturn. L. i. c. 7. p. 179.) Upon a gem in Stosch the modius accompanies the head of Jupiter Philius; and the distinction of beads of Serapis or Pluto from those of Jupiter is the disposition of the hair. In the former, it is turned backwards in front, as occurs upon three Serapises at the Villa Albani, the Villa Pamphili, and the Guistiniani palace. In one gem the beard is forked. (Winckelm. Art. 4. 2.) Count Caylus (Rech. v. 187) observes, that the Romans did not adopt the symbol of the modius before the reign of Hadrian. According to some authors, the modius distinguishes Serapis of the Nile, because it symbolizes the fertility of that river. The modius upon the heads of Deities and that upon coins differ in form. The latter has feet.

X. TRAJAN. A Colossal Head, in a civic crown. Next to the celebrated column, the finest specimen of the art of his time is the colossal head at the Villa Albani (Winckelm.); and there are or were two busts in the French Museum, of which one belonged to the same Villa, but the French one is not the finest. There is another colossal head, crowned like this, at the Capitol; another, at the Farnese palace; and a third, supposed to have belonged to the statue upon the column, in the palace of the Cardinal della Valle. (Mongez, Rec. d'Antiq. 14.)`

XI. ESCULAPIUS. A Colossal Bust. His head is wrapped in a bandage, or

sort

sort of turban, which occurs in many images of this God, and in some por traits of antient Physicians. The fea tures, beard, and hair, though resembling those of Jupiter, have not his majestic character. (Visconti, p. 5.) The fine Hygeia in the collection of Mr. Hope, which the Author of these Remarks illustrated, has a bandage round the head. The assimilation of features to Jupiter is presumed to have been founded upon the antient opinion, that the son more often resembled the grandfather than the father. The finest known head of Esculapius is at the Villa Albani.

XII. PHEDRA AND HIPPOLITUS. A bas-relief. This marble once formed the face of a tomb. The story is represented in two acts. On the left, the son of Theseus rejects the seductions of Phedra and her Nurse. The Temple of Diana, in the back-ground, alludes to the love of Hippolitus for the chase and the purity of his manners. On the right, the same hero is hunting the wild boar of Philius, of which Seneca, the Tragedian, has made mention. (Visconti, p.5.) Bas-reliefs thus deDominated are common; but, as it was the Nurse, not Phedra, who made the declaration, (See Monum. ined. ii. 102. Pitt. Ercol. 1. iii. tav. 15. Bartollant. tav. 6), and there have been numerous wrong appropriations of marbles to this story, it may be said of Visconti's account, without wholly rejecting it, that it is hot clearly beyond doubt a Phedra and Hippolitus, though supported by the high name of Visconti.

XIII. THE INDIAN BACCHUS. A Colossal Bust. The mythological Conqueror of the Indies. (Visconti, p. 5.) These figures are quite common; and occur on all sorts of monuments. Bacchus (says Mythology) let his beard grow during his Indian expedition, and therefore was so represented, when it was intended to depict him as Conqueror. The figure was intended to combine the ideal beauty of manhood with youth. The bearded Bacchus of the Hamilton Vases (vol. i.) is among the best.

XIV. VASE, in form of a CRATERA, adorned with masks, Sileni and Fauns, and other Bacchic emblems of excellent execution. It is engraved by Piranesi. (Vases, pl. 24.) It is placed upon an hexagonal altar, of which the three largest faces are concave, and the three smaller alternating. Upon

one of the first is a priest, crowned, and in Greek costume, making offerings upon a small altar, placed between two laurels. It is probably a quindecimvir; for this was the appellation given by the Romans to a college of fifteen priests, who preserved the Sibylline oracles, and were attached to the worship of Apollo. They wore a Greek costume. The tripod of this God, surmounted by its cover (cortina), upon which is a raven, was one of the attributes of the same priesthood. The crown of wheat-ears is a symbol of the Fratres Arvales. These two priesthoods were probably united in the same personage. This altar is remarkable for delicacy and richness of execution, as well as perfect conservation. (Visconti, p. 6.) The Sibylline Books were certainly in the custody of the Quindecimviri; but there is an attribution of the symbols of Apollo, and the Fratres Arvales, apparently forced in to furnish a plausible account. Possibly the altar commemorates a Vow to Apollo by one of the Fratres Arvales. XV. THE SAUROCTONOS. A Statue. Praxiteles worked, in bronze, a young Apollo shooting an arrow at a lizard rampant, whence the appellation, according to Pliny, of Sauroctonos, or lizard-killer. Many imi

tations of this celebrated statue have reached our æra. None is more entire than this. It is of Parian marble. It came, as well as the whole Borghese collection, from Rome to this Museum. (Visconti, p. 7.) Winckelman contends, that all these statues denote Apollo impuber in boyhood; and they have the symbol of youth, legs cros sed. See Hist. de l'Art. VI. 2. See too Monum. Ant. Ined. No. 4, for one of the Villa Borghese Sauroctonoi ; for there were two in that collection.

XVI. THE DANCERS. Bas-relief. Five young women, holding each other by the hand, dance around a temple of Corinthian architecture. They give an idea of those choirs, where the chaunting of hymns and the dance were united to embellish the feasts of Paganism. (Visconti, p. 7.) Temples of the Corinthian order were appropriated to Venus, Flora, Proserpine, and the Water-Nymphs, be cause the elegance of the foliage, flowers, and volutes, which accompa nied this style, harmonized with the tender and delicate beauty of these

Goddesses.

Goddesses. Whenever a new worship was established, a particular dance was invented and appropriated to it. Orpheus, who was a real person, tra, velled into Egypt, and brought from thence, among the then barbarous Greeks, this, with other superstitious customs. Such dances were called sacred, and there were particular fi gures appropriated for the dances of the Bona Dea, the Saturnalia, and the first of May, or Floralia, to which, from the dancing round in a circle, this bas-relief appears to allude; as now retained around the May Pole.

XVII. OFFERINGS. A Bas-Relief. Two females, of the same style and sculpture as the last, are represented in the act of adorning, with garlands, an altar in the form of a candelabrum, which burns before a Temple, whilst a third is offering the first fruits of the season. The Satyrs, sculptured upon the base of the candelabrum, make us conclude that these offerings were dedicated to Bacchus. This basrelief, as well as its appendage, has been engraved in the Admiranda. Thus Visconti, p. 8. The custom of using flowers, as emblems of rejoicing, is antient, beyond correct knowledge of the origin: but, as this bas-relief is similar to that engraved in Montfaucon (iii. 198. ed. Humphreys), it is sufficient to state, that the Temple is probably a Porticus of the House. The allusion to the Bacchanalia, privately celebrated, is manifest.

XVIII. THE GENIUS OF ETERNAL REPOSE. A Statue. This Genius standing, crowned with flowers, the arms elevated and laid upon the head, and the back leaning against a firtree, seems to express by his attitude the repose of the dead, or eternal. sleep. The bas-reliefs of tombs often offer similar figures, but this is the only one en ronde bosse, which has reached our age. The bas-relief fitted into the pedestal represents Bacchus. (Visconti, p. 8.) The arms behind the head always denote repose, and the Antients never represented Death by skeletons. The Genii of Sleep were commonly represented with crossed legs and inverted torches. Upon modern tombs, as on the antient, in Boissard (p. V. p. 115) two occur. one signifies simply nocturnal sleep; and the other, eternal; in allusion to the twin brethren, Sleep and Death.

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Mr. URBAN, Stourhead, March 11. AVING noticed at page 11 of your Magazine for January, an account of the celebrated oak-tree which once stood on the demesne of Sir Robert Vaughan, at Nannau, I beg leave to correct some misstatements in that account, and to relate a curious anecdote.

In the month of July 1813, I was on a visit to the worthy knight of Merionethshire, when attracted by the very venerable appearance of this tree, and interested by the historical anecdote attached to it by Mr. Pennant; I made a correct drawing of it, in one of the hottest days I ever remember, and on the 27th of July. I departed from the hopsitable man-sion of Nannau, early in the morning of the 28th arrived unfortunately a few hours too soon, for at breakfast time the sad news of the downfall of this aged oak was brought to the house, and there was scarcely a breath of air during the whole night to occasion the disaster. It grew within the kitchen-garden wall, and adjoining to it.

Wishing to record the memory of this interesting object, I allowed Mr. George Cuitt of Chester, an artist so celebrated for his superior excellence in etching, to copy it-he has succeeded fully in his deline