pending to this article the following extract from the hitherto unpublished History of the Hundred of Frustfield, contributed to Sir Richard Hoare's great work by George Matcham, Esq. LL.D. After recording the destruction of a stately and venerable mansion, situated in a village street, the writer remarks: "The solitary grandeur with which the rich and noble now aspire to be surrounded, is little consonant with the feelings and habits of the ancient baronage and gentry of the realm. The village was their pride, as well as their own habitation; and if they valued the gigantic oaks, which witnessed so many generations of their race, they held in still greater estimation the attached tenantry and peasantry, who produced their revenues, maintained their rights, and shared in the pains and pleasures of their lives. But these days of mutual dependance and intercourse, in too many instances, have long since passed away. The lord of the manor is now rarely contented with his local distinctions, and according to his means and abilities seeks the honours and amusements of the Court, the town, and more frequently the all engulphing watering-place. The easy communication which tempts away the master, brings discontent and new desires to his retainers; the dispensers of misrule, both civil and religious, occupy the deserted post, and too often the carelessness, extortion, and disregard of one party, is met by coldness, distrust, and disrespect in the other. Hence probably then the love of seclusion and exclusion among our higher classes is generated and fostered, and the extent of the mischief gradually spreads into wider circles." These observations form the text to the following very appropriate note: "That many instances to the contrary exist, the face of the country, and the knowledge of individuals, prove alike; and all, perhaps, may point out one or more, where the imagination itself is satisfied, with the scene of comfort and beauty which such villages afford. Can I then in this place, with the recollection which so many annual visits have strengthened, forbear to record my own instance, in calling to mind the picture of the Village of Stourton, in all its exquisite beauty of situation, propriety, and tasteful ornament? Its church, (placed on that verdant knoll, backed by wood,) rich in Gothic decoration, true in its proportions, and tinted by the hand of time in the grey subdued propriety of age :-the precincts, marked by the cross, again exalted on its pristine site, the sculptured seat for the awaiting congregation-the tombstones of the villagers, mossy and ancient but not ruinous-and the mausoleum of the lords of the soil:-at its termination the lake glistening through the foliage, which sur rounds the magnificent cross, restored with the care due to a monument of kings;' the dwellings scattered over the sides of the narrow valley, duly varied in size and character with the degrees and employments of their inmates, but each exhibiting the carefulness of the master for the comfort of all, and the groves sion of that master stands? Can I pass which clothe the heights where the manover the moral beauty of this scene, or the happy effect which the residence of shown to produce on the face of nature, a great and beneficent landowner is here and what is of more consequence on the human face divine? To one individual alone, I trust, I need apply for this indulgence; and let him excuse the expression of that which so many others have felt for years, must pass away before his works cease to speak for themselves, and before the name of Sir Richard' will fail in calling up to that neighbourhood those feelings of respectful attachment which it now imparts to it. To those who, like me, have occasionally been domiciled in these scenes, the character of Atticus has probably recurred: 'Elegans non magnificus, splendidus non sumptuosus, omni diligentiâ munditiem non affluentem affectabat. . . Mendacium neque dicebat, neque pati poterat. Itaque ejus comitas non sine severitate erat, neque gravitas sine facilitate, ut difficile esset intellectu utrum eum amici magis venerentur an amarent. Nunquam sus Mo cepti negotii eum pertæsum est; suam enim existimationem in eâ re agi putabat quâ nihil habebat carius... ex quo judicari potuit non inertiâ, sed judicio fugisse reipublicæ procurationem. Nemo in conviviis ejus aliud acroama audivit quam anagnosten, neque unquam sine aliquâ lectione apud eum coenatum, ut non minus animo quam ventre convivæ delectarentur; namque eos vocabat quorum mores a suis non abhorrerunt. ris etiam majorum summus imitator fuit -nulla enim lex, neque pax neque bellum, neque res illustris est populi Romani quæ non in eo, suo tempore sic notata; et quod difficillimum fuit, sic familiarum originem subtexuit, ut ex eo clarorum propagines possimus cognoscere.' But the Roman knight was contented with nature merely in its wildness: 'nullos habuit hortos.' A wider range of usefulness appears in the labours of the master here, who in his advanced years might, with the elder Cato, rank his occupations in agriculture and gardening, among the pleasures of old age; and in how many places of his wide estate might he truly say, ' atque ego omnia ista sum dimensus; mei sunt ordines, mea descriptio, multa etiam istarum arborum meâ manu sunt satæ.' May these useful and elegant pursuits retain their interest till the latest period of desirable existence, and when that shall cease Εν μακαρεσσι πονων αντάξιος ειη αμοιβη.” "And thou Witness, Elysian Tempe of STOURHEAD! (Late may it be!) the poor man's tear will fall, And his voice falter, when he speaks of thee!" BOWLES'S Days Departed. I HAD put together some notes in reply to FIOR GHAEL, but the appearance of his second letter induced me to withhold my communication until this time. I have to repeat my dissent from the protestation of your correspondent, that he will listen to no opinions of others," but will adhere to facts only. The decision from facts is undeniably the best way to determine any question, but I submit, with all respect, that to reject in toto the opinions of competent judges-writers who have had equal facilities for obtaining information, is much too exclusive and arrogant. Certainly few have ever adopted so very restrictive a mode of discussion, and as seldom have any been able to carry it wholly into effect; even FIOR GHAEL himself cannot altogether resist the impulse, but quotes Sir William Betham, Balbi, and others, with as much apparent satisfaction, as I should have been inclined to do, had I conceived those authorities requisite to be adduced. Indeed he ex presses his "joy and pride that the opinion of Gesenius coincides with his own." The learning of Gesenius* must be admitted, but was his knowledge of Gaëlic sufficient to enable him to give so decided an opinion? The professor delivers his dictum, ex cathedra, that the Irish being of a Celtic origin hath no affinity with Hebrew, and wonders that there are still those who do not sicken at the reveries of Vallancey. The authority of FIOR GHAEL on this subject has much more weight with me. The "triad" of comparison which FIOR GHAEL is desirous of entering upon, is not, to my apprehension, exactly the mode to be adopted; I shall, however, endeavour to meet his views, and present some facts which, I trust, will be more satisfactory than reiterated "theories and authorities;" but I must first remark that if the affinity of many languages was to be judged by their grammatical construction, brought to its present state, as most of them are, by the inventive genius of successive grammarians; some cognate speeches would appear to have no relationship. According to Balbi, upon whose authority FIOR GHAEL lays some stress, the copia verborum proves the radical affinity of languages. I shall take then the five verses of St. John's Gospel as FIOR GHAEL has given them, but I shall adopt a more just manner of comparing the two languages. FIOR GHAEL has given some instances of difference between the Gaëlic and Irish versions of the Bible, in the use of words altogether dissimilar in sound and orthography, yet perfectly synonymous. With all due respect for the authorised translation of Scripture, I shall for the sake of exemplifying my position substitute another, the orthography of the words, which I hope FIOR GHAEL will allow to be correct Gaëlic, showing a much closer identity with the Welsh; and I have thought it necessary to give several of the corresponding words in both, orthoepically, for the benefit "Geselius" was a lapsus, which, from not having an opportunity of revisal, was left uncorrected. of readers unacquainted with those tongues. To save the space of your Magazine, I shall dispense with the re-insertion of the Gaelic verses, referring to Feb. p. 142, where they appear; and the dispassionate reader will acknowledge that, instead of there being three words only that have a resemblance, there is in reality a very great GAELIC. An Soisgeul a reir Eoin. 1. Ann an 'teachdread bha a 2Ghairm, agus a Ghairm bha cuid ri Dia, agus Dia b'e Ghairm. 2. So fhein ann an teachdread bha cuid ri Dia. 3. Trid es' chai' dheanamh gach bith; agus asdo es ni dheanamh, dad a dheanadh. 4. Ann do es bha 'beatha; agus bi'a a bheatha eol 10dhaoine. 5. Agus ta' n t eolas a 12leir anns an 13doille, agus ni'or 14umghabh an doille e. Here we see something more than a word of similar sound and import occurring occasionally in the two languages. The orthoepy will draw closer their affinity. 1. Teachdread, pr. teaghkread, the gh having that guttural sound so difficult to be emitted by Saxon organs of speech. Teachd read, otherwise ruid, the coming of things-ergo the beginning, Dechreuad. 2. Gairm, voice, cry; a calling, a proclaiming. Focal, a word, verbum. Gair in both Welsh and Gaëlic signify a shout, report, resounding. 3. Cuid ri, Cuid, a share, ri, with. FIOR GHAEL must know that the Saxons use w where the Gaël and Cumri use g and C, which are convertible letters; e. g. Gallia, Wallia; Cuid, Gyd, Wid, With, &c. 4. Fhein, one's own self, is pronounced hein and hin throughout the Highlands. 5. Trid es; trid, through or by, es, a contraction of esa, the emphatic form of he, him. 6. Dheanamh, pr. Yeanav, doing, acting. 7. Gach, pr. goch, each, every; bith, life, being, i. e. every thing. 8. Ann do, or an es; in him. Do "is of frequent use as a prepositive when no precise additional meaning is given to it." affinity, and should any Welsh scholar take the trouble to give us another version of the Cumraeg, there can be no doubt but that affinity will appear still more striking. This is my own conviction, and I conceive I have taken the most rational mode of determining the question. WELSH. Yr Efengyl yn ol Sant Joan. 1. Yn y dechreuad yn oedd y Gair, oedd gyd a Duw, a Duw, oedd y Gair. 2. Hun oedd yn y dechreuad gyd a Duw. 3. Trwyddo ef y gwnaethpwyd pob peth; ac hebddo ef ni wnaethpwyd dim a'r a wnaethpwyd. 4. Ynddo ef yr oedd bywyd ; a'r bywyd oedd oleuni dynion. 5. A'r goleuni sydd yn llewyrchu yn y tywyllwch; a'r tywyllwch nid oedd yn ei amgyffred. 9. Beatha, life. 10. Dhaoine is often pronounced Dine. It is the plural of Duine, man, and without offering much violence to common usage, it might be formed like a regular noun,-Duinean instead of Daoine. 11. Eal and eolas, mental light, which is, I believe, the meaning of the text. Oillean, is learning. 12. Leir, visible. An leir dhuit e? Does it appear to you? Leirachadh, throwing light upon. 13. Doille, dalladh and dallachd, darkness, from dall, applied to one who is blind. 14. Umchadh, or umaidh about, 'or around you, embrace. The dictionaries seem deficient in giving the sense of embracing, as used in the Central Highlands, to this word, which occurs in some old MSS., as umghabh; umfhasg, Ir. a close embrace. I trust there is here no great straining, to further my particular views. Of course every one will understand that the roots only of the words in the two languages are identical, the terminations being mere matter of chance or caprice. From Sir William Betham's hypothesis 1 of course dissent, and presume it is untenable, notwithstanding the ability with which it is defended. The uncharitable and, I believe, very unjust attack upon Llwyd and Rowland, I wholly deprecate as an unworthy aspersion on the characters of those writers. To be told that the man who wrote not only a Welsh Dictionary of high repute, but one of Gaëlic and another of Irish, had not sufficient honesty to record his conviction of the non-affinity of those languages, is somewhat startling; it is, to use the mildest expression, a severe reflection. Surely such animadversions savour very strongly of that "national prejudice" or literary bias, which FIOR GHAEL SO becomingly repudiates. As I formerly stated, languages must have borne a closer resemblance to each other in remote ages, than when in the lapse of time they become Goll mear mileata Nar thraoch a threin tachar It is quite unnecessary to mark the coincidences in the above. It may be simply observed that bh and mh in Gaelic have the sound of v; h placed after d and f aspirates those consonants, and dd, in Cumraeg, has the power of th. Ll has a sound peculiar to the Welsh, the nearest approach to which is the Spanish 11. I would have given an English translation, furnished by an eminent Welsh scholar, but my communication is already getting too long; it may be furnished at another time, and the terms will be found to agree precisely with the Gaëlic. I must now conclude, thanking Mr. Urban for allowing his columns to be the vehicle of a discussion both inteGENT. MAG. VOL. X. refined and lose their primitive simplicity; and in my work on the Gaël, of which F. G. does me the honour to speak with so much favour, I dilated considerably on the subject; under the necessity, at the same time, of citing many authorities in defence of my position. The following old Irish fragment of poetry, has been rendered into Welsh by the late Dr. Davies, author of "Celtic Researches," &c.;* and if it does not beyond dispute prove these languages to be as closely allied, as different locality and long separation could well permit, I must confess my judgment to be so warped that I cannot come to a lucid or reasonable conclusion. Coll mûr milêddau resting and instructive. I hope that enough has been brought forward to reduce the confidence of FIOR GHAEL in the rectitude of his opinions; to convince him I can scarcely hope, but I am fortunate in having met an opponent whose oriental knowledge is so profound, and whose style of argument is so respectful to me personally. This courtesy, it seems, he has extended in my case, to one who has the honour of his acquaintance. I am, Sir, yours, &c. *The Claims of Ossian considered." The competence of this writer in Keltic dialects is unexceptionable. F A VISIT TO A MONASTERY OF LA TRAPPE. SINCE the restoration of the Catholic religion in France, the government has sanctioned the re-establishment of many of those monastic orders, the members of which devote themselves to objects of public utility. The services of the Sisters of Charity in the public hospitals were of too much value to Napoleon, for his wounded soldiers, not to be encouraged and fostered by him. The courage and utter abandonment of all selfish considerations, which distinguish these excellent women, not only in times of sanguinary wars and epidemic disorders, but in the ordinary routine of their duties in hospitals and poorhouses (displayed, too, as they sometimes are, by persons of noble birth and refined education) obtain for them universal respect and the highest approbation of the administrators of charitable institutions, who in their reports speak of their services as inestimable, such as money could not procure, and which can only be inspired by the purest sentiments of religion. When Louis the Eighteenth visited the hospitals in London, after expressing his admiration of the general arrangements, he qualified his praise with the observation, "Mais vous n'avez pas nos sœurs grises." Services as painful and as exemplary are rendered to the insane by the nuns of the order of Le bon Sauveur, while the Ursulines and the Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes devote themselves to the education of the poor. All these orders, distinguished by their ecclesiastical dresses, are to be seen in every large town in France; but the passing English traveller may not be equally aware that some of the severest monastic institutions, characterised by mysti cism, mortification, and self-denial, have crept in during the Restoration, and, surviving the unfriendly Revolution of the Three Days, are still to be found in the midst of the general frivolity and scepticism of our neighbours, averse as the national character at present is, not only from bigotry, but even from serious religious ob servance. The most severe of these is the order of La Trappe, which to the most rigid abstinence and seclusion adds the absolute denial of speech to its mem bers among each other. A monastery of this order has been established about thirteen years, near the small town of Briquebec, in the Cotentin, about five leagues from Cherbourg, where a farm of moderate extent had been bequeathed to it. Being in that country, and finding that strangers were admitted, curiosity to observe the austerities of this far-famed order with my own eyes led me thither. I found the convent on a rising ground, in a rough and woody waste; a sub. stantial slated edifice is replacing the old thatched buildings of the farm, in the midst of which rises a recently. erected church, with a Gothic tower, imparting a conventual character to the whole mass. I entered under a stone arch surmounted by a cross, and knocked at a door on which the pilgrim's scallop, and the cypher of the cross and Roman M are embossed. The door was opened by a bare-headed lay brother, clad in a brown robe, fastened by a leathern girdle, who directed me to the strangers' waitingroom, where I was shortly joined by one of the brothers of the choir, a young man of about 25, of a florid complexion, which abstinence had reduced to the transparent white and red of a sickly female, and his eyes were feeble from night watching; his hair was clipped close, except a small circle round the centre of the skull; he was clothed in the scapulary, a white dress with a long band of black down the back; he afterwards appeared in the cowl, an ample loose robe of white, with a conical hood hanging on his shoulders. He readily consented to my request to see the establishment, and to dine with the brothers in the refectory. To a question as to his country, he replied that he was not permitted to give any information personal to himself or any of the monks, and that in the cloisters, chapel, dormitory, and refectory, speech was forbidden, as he would indicate to me by placing his finger on his lips. He further informed me, that even if I found in any of the monks a former acquaintance, I must not speak to him or give any sign of recognition, and that formerly this rule was peremptory even on a father or a brother. He first conducted me through the cloisters to |