PREFACE. "THERE is, perhaps, (says Dr. Johnson,) no nation in which it is so necessary as in our own to assemble from time to time the small tracts, and fugitive pieces, which are occasionally published; for, besides the general subjects of inquiry which are cultivated by us in common with every learned nation, our constitution in Church and State naturally gives birth to a multitude of performances, which would either not have been written, or could not have been made public, in any other place." This remark of Dr. Johnson not only holds good when applied to pamphlets and other small tracts separately published, but may justly be extended to all works where the communication of opinions or statements is concisely given, or where it does not necessarily involve the publication of the author's name; where sentiments may be delivered, and questions argued, without any fear of reputation being hazarded, and where, perhaps, the first spark of truth may be elicited, the full importance of which cannot be accurately ascertained, nor the extent of the future development, perhaps, suspected. How many essays and controversies on subjects of Art and Literature have appeared for the first time in the pages of the Gentleman's Magazine, which, afterwards, having been digested into order, and expanded into a full exhibition of the argument, have formed volumes of standard reference necessary to the inquiries of the Scholar and Antiquary. Thus one advantage which a Magazine like ours possesses, is, in many cases, to exhibit the rise and progress of opinions, to be the means by which prejudice may be dissolved, error disentangled, and truth recovered. For enabling us to gratify the curiosity of the public in that portion of our Magazine which is set apart for the reception of original communications, we have to thank many intelligent and friendly correspondents; while we, as Editors of the work, are answerable to the public for all diligence and inquiry, and carefulness of selection. As concerns another branch of our work, some one has classed "the Reviewers of books among the disturbers of human quiet;" but this censure, we trust, is hardly applicable to us, whose endeavour has been rather to select proper objects for the attention of our readers, than to anticipate their judgment by any censure of our own. Everything that is in excess defeats its own. purpose; and the malignant severity of the critic will soon be harmless to all but himself. Our Retrospective department is formed on the conviction that, while modern books are multiplied without number, there is much still left in the learned volumes of our ancestors that has been put aside by more attractive novelties, or forgotten for want of earlier records, like our own, which could separate the more valuable portions of a work, and point them out to attention, while they as yet formed the literature of the day. Time too stamps its value on things of no intrinsic importance; and many a worthless pamphlet and forgotten tract has become suddenly immortal, by its accidentally throwing light upon a passage of Shakspeare. As regards our Obituary, (a portion of our Magazine which has always stood high in public estimation,) our memorials of the deceased, and our estimate of their characters, must, from the very nature of the subject, be sometimes less copious than we could wish-in a few instances perhaps erroneous, since we cannot always depend upon our materials; but we can say, that there is no part of our Magazine which is attended to with more punctilious care than this; that we search extensively for the collection of our materials, and that we endeavour to bring the most unbiassed mind to the survey of the characters and lives of those who have earned in different ways an honourable station in the annals of their country. SYLVANUS URBAN. E PLURIBUS UNUM. MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.-Author quoted by Lord Hailes?-Birds found in Ireland-Some less obvious Etymologies LOCKHART'S LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.. Letter of Mr. H. N. Coleridge to Mr. Daniel Stuart Anecdotes of Coleridge and of London Newspapers . STOURTON CHURCH, Wiltshire; and the Sepulchral Memorials of the Family of Hoare (with a Plate) ...... The Welsh, Irish, and Gaëlic Languages A VISIT TO A MONASTERY OF LA TRAPPE Admission of a Vicar by the Commissioners for Publick Preachers, 1657.. Ecclesiastical Changes effected by the Church Commissioners Sonnet by the Rev. W. L. Bowles, on receiving an Ear Trumpet On the Presumed Intercourse of Ducks and Toads RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW-Old French Literature.-Mysteries of St. Gene- viève-Romances of Robert the Devil, and King Flore, &c. Remains of Rev. R. H. Froude, 49.-Faber's Primitive Doctrine of Justi- fication, 54.-Gibson's Etymological Geography, 55.-Gally Knight's Nor- mans in Sicily, 56.-Nichols's Beauchamp Monuments, 60.-Keightley's History of England, 64.-Restoration of Edward IV. (published by the Camden Society), 66.-Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 69.-Lymps- field and its Environs, 70.-Miscellaneous Reviews ..... FINE ARTS.-Drawings in the Royal Academy.-Carne's Constantinople.... New Publications, 75.-Roxburghe Club, 76.-Universities, 77.-Royal, Lin- OBITUARY; with Memoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand; Sir C. H. Palmer, |