he manumitted Thomas Gybbs his villain; and bare then, as appears by his seal, Calthorpe and Bacon quarterly, and for his crest, a boar's head between two naked boys armed with clubs.

In the twenty-fifth of the same reign, he purchased the ancient seat of the Erpingham's, situated in the parish of St. Martin at the Plain, in the city of Norwich, of the executors of Joan Lady Bardolph, and that mansion he made his occasional city residence.

He became locum tenens and commissary-general to the most noble and potent William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk and Earl of Pembroke, high chamberlain of England, Ireland, and Aquitain, during the minority of Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter and Lord Admiral; and in the 36th of the same reign he again served the office of sheriff, and was knighted at the coronation of King Edward the Fourth, 1461.

In the 8th of that reign he writes himself of Ludham, in Norfolk, and that year he again filled the office of sheriff; he also served, for the fourth time, in the eighteenth year of the same reign, and that year was steward of the household to Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York and Norfolk, and second son of Edward IV, who married Anne, sole daughter and heiress of the above John Mowbray, Duke of

Norfolk.

Sir William Calthorp was twice married. By his first lady, Elizabeth, daughter of Reginald Grey, Lord Grey of Ruthyn, who died in 1437, he had issue two sons, John and William, and two daughters, Amy and Elizabeth. He married secondly, Elizabeth, eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Miles Stapleton, of Ingham on, of Ingham in Norfolk, knight, by Catharine, his second wife, daughter of Sir Thomas Delapole, knight, by whom he also had issue two sons Francis and Edward, and as many daughters; Elizabeth, the eldest, married Francis Haselden of Little Chesterford, in Essex, esquire, and Anne, the youngest, was the wife of Sir Robert Drury of Hawsted in Suffolk, knight, privy councillor to King Henry the Seventh.

From the male issue of these

matches, several distinct branches are derived of this honourable and knightly family. Sir William Calthorpe died in 1494, and was buried by his first lady, in the Whitefriars' church at Norwich; his will was proved Nov. 27, in that year, and inquisitions were awarded in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, &c.

Lady Elizabeth survived him, and became the wife of Sir John Fortescue, Lord Chief Justice of England, on whose death she re-married to Sir Edward Howard, Lord High Admiral, and brother of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. She died in the last year of the reign of Henry the Seventh. Yours, &c. A. P.

MR. URBAN,

July 5.

IT has often occurred to me, whilst taking a review of the present state of Anglo-Saxon literature, to endeavour, by means of inquiries in the Gentleman's Magazine, to ascertain if the Anglo-Saxon language was ever extinct in England. A few days ago, whilst looking over Hearne's Glossary to Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, I met with a "letter concerning a book printed at Tavistock in Devonshire," written by Hearne to John Bagford, who was then making collections (now in the Harleian Library) for a History of Printing.

The allusion is to "The Boke of Comfort, called in Latyn Boecius de Consolatione Philosophie, enprented in the exempt Monastery of Tavestok, in Denshyre. By me Dan Thomas Rychard, Monke of the sayd Monastery, to the instant desyre of the ryght worshypful esquyer Mayster Robert Langdon, Anno Domini MDXXV." On this work Hearne, who apparently had examined it, has the following conjecture:

"I am of opinion that Robert Langdon mov'd him to print this Book not only out of a pious Design, but also for the advancing the Saxon Tongue, which was taught in this Abbey as well as in some other places of this Kingdom with success; and there were Lectures read in it constantly here, which continued some time after the Reformation. Now this Translation of Boëtius having variety of words agreeing with the Saxon, it might be reckoned by Mr. Langdon a very proper book for attaining to the knowledge of the

Several authorities may be cited respecting the founding a Saxon lecture in the monastery of Tavistock. The first which I shall adduce is Camden

in the Britannia (in Devonshire), who distinctly states that Saxon Lectures were read in Tavistock Monastery till or near to the time of its dissolution. In L'Isle's Saxon Monuments, Preface to the edition of 1623, allusion is made to it in the following words:--"Thanks be to God that he that conquered the land could not so conquer the language, but that in Memory of our Fathers it hath been preserved in common Lectures," &c. Kennet, in his life of Somner, apparently following Camden, says, " In the Abbey of Tavistock, which had a Saxon founder about 691, there weresolemn lectures in the Saxon tongue even to the time of our fathers, that the knowledge of it might not fail, as it has since well nigh done." In a sketch of the progress of Anglo-Saxon literature published at Paris Paris, in 1836, there is an allusion to an Anglo-Saxon grammar, "Nous avons lu quelque part que les moines de Tavistock composèrent et même imprimèrent une Grammaire Saxonne." And in a work on the same subject, published the following year, Mr. Kemble remarks, "It is said that the monks of Tavistock, before the dissolution of their monastery, not only revived the study of Saxon, but possessed a font of Saxon type, and printed Saxon books. Assuredly of any Saxon book which they did print, (if ever they printed any,) there is nothing remaining in any library in Europe."

Without multiplying quotations on the subject, although it may be doubted whether any Saxon books were printed before the Saxon Homilies in 1567, by John Daye, yet it appears reasonable to conclude that a Saxon lecture was publicly read in the monastery of Tavistock till its dissolution, which a few years only preceded what has been called the revival of Saxon literature by Archbishop Parker about the year 1566. But the

Archbishop was not alone in the wish to promote the revival of the Saxon tongue, although from his elevated position the merit of much that others did was, probably, attributed to him. The labours of Nowell, and Josceline, and Lambarde, must not be forgotten : the former of whom, so early as 1557, compiled a Saxon vocabulary, said to be deposited in the Bodleian Library; so that his knowledge of the language, we may suppose, had been acquired before this period. Of Josceline but little is known; some particulars of his life and labours are given in the History of Lambeth Palace, and a portion of his collections is deposited in the Cotton Library.

There is, perhaps, no part of England in which so many Anglo-Saxon words are to be met with in general use, as amongst the common people of the counties of Devon and Somerset. For the purpose of illustration I subjoin a few words selected at random; the first column has the Anglo-Saxon form; the second the western dialect; the third is modern English.

Without a knowledge of the strong aspiration of the h, by natives of the west, it is, perhaps, not so evident; but with that knowledge it will appear plainly that their pronunciation of words which retain the Anglo-Saxon form, approaches very nearly to that which is elucidated by the rules given by philologers s for our guidance in the Anglo-Saxon. With this in view, the accenting of hroc in any other way than by lengthening the open sound of o as in croak seems to be improper. The retention too of the Anglo-Saxon pronoun ic, in the various forms of ic, ich, iche, 'ch, &c. as well as the singular and plural dative, thissum, of the Anglo-Saxon pronoun thes, may be noticed as deserving of attention. But

one living and true God, or at what æra or in what manner the corruptions of Polytheism crept in. But if,

in the case of the Jewish nation, whom a special voice from Heaven, heard on Mount Sinai, had warned in awful accents against the sin of idolatry, there was (as is shewn in the sacred writings) an ever recurring propensity to fall into idolatry, can we wonder that other less favoured nations should sink into the same abominations? But there is no part of this subject more remarkable, none more deserving of investigation, than the similitude existing in the names and attributes of deities in different climates and in different ages, and at so great a distance from each other, which can only be accounted for on the supposition that they deduced their origin from one common source, the immediate descendants of Noah; and, however pure and unsullied the knowledge transmitted by them to succeeding generations might be in its origin, yet the further it receded from the fountain-head, the more it lost of its original purity, and like other streams became turbid in its course

from foreign admixture, till in most instances it partially, and in some entirely, lost all traces of its high descent. As languages multiplied, great changes took place: the original meaning of sacred terms was forgotten, and the names as well as circumstances were often perverted or engrafted on the history of the country; or perhaps new terms of similar signification in their own language, and more in unison with their habits and prejudices, introduced in their stead. And the wonder is, that these streams of religious knowledge, after flowing through so many different channels, should retain the slightest tincture of their original fountain.

Those who are conversant with the oriental languages of antiquity will often be able to trace them in other tongues, especially in such terms as have a reference to their deities, or to their religious rites and ceremonies. Where every other source of informa

tion is wanting, it will often happen that the only light that can be cast upon the origin of certain forms of idolatry, must be derived from etymological investigation. I am well aware how objectionable is the custom of indiscriminately deducing etymologies from oriental languages, for there is great danger of falling (as many very learned men have done) into the grossest absurdities. No persons are so willing to be deceived, where they have an hypothesis to carry, as antiquaries; and there are few names of persons or places to which an ingenious scholar might not succeed in finding some supposed similarity in the ancient languages of the east, and especially in a language like the Hebrew, where every root is capable of so many combinations. In a former paper I endeavoured to shew the oriental origin of some of the deities worshipped by the ancient Britons. The object of the present paper is to supply further proofs of this position, and especially such as may be drawn from inscriptions on altars dedicated to certain deities worshipped in Britain. Nothing can be more evident, from the great number of altars which have been brought to light in different parts of Britain, that, in addition to the national deities, there were certain Dii Minores worshipped in particular provinces. From the inscriptions still preserved, the names of several such local deities are known, and it is probable, had a proper record of such inscri inscriptions been preserved, a curious catalogue of local deities might have been formed, which would have contributed to our knowledge of this interesting subject.

I had written my former paper on Druidism, before I was aware that one of your former volumes * contains a brief but luminous essay on the subject; and though I may not subscribe to every opinion broached by its able author, yet it would afford me the highest satisfaction to find him prosecuting his researches in this department of literature. The dedication of so many Roman altarst to the local