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principal and mother elements of the world, whereof all things in this lower world are made, should lose the qualities which now they have; if the frame of that heavenly arch, erected over our heads, should loosen and dissolve itself; if celestial spheres should forget their wonted motions, and by irregular volubility turn themselves any way as it might happen; if the prince of the lights of heaven, which now as a giant doth run his unwearied course, should as it were, through a languishing faintness, begin to stand, and to rest himself; if the moon should wander from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture, the winds breathe out their last gasp, the clouds yield no rain, the earth be defeated of heavenly influence, the fruits of the earth pine away, as children at the withered breasts of their mother no longer able to yield them relief; what would become of man bimself, whom these things do now all serve? See we not plainly, that obedience of creatures unto the law of nature is the stay of the whole world ?"-Hooker, Ecc. Pol. § 1. p. 3.

P. 275. Shut, shut the door, good John, &c. &c.

I once had a transient view of a MS. in Pope's hand-writing; it contains hints, seminal thoughts, illustrations, and anecdotes, for occasional use. I recollect to have read in it the following anecdote of Sir Isaac Newton; it was versified, and I suppose intended for a place in the Epistle to Arbuthnot. Sir Isaac being often interrupted by ignorant pretenders to the discovery of the longitude, ordered his porter to inquire of every stranger, who desired admission, whether he came about the longitude, and to exclude such as answered in the affirmative.-Two lines, as I recollect, ran thus:

Is it about the longitude you come?

The porter ask'd: Sir Isaac's not at home.

P. 305. I do not know, whether it has been yet observed that Addison's account of the English poets, is an imitation of Drayton's Epistle to Henry Reynolds, of poets and poesy. P. 320. In a life of Pope, written by one Ayres, and published by Curll, I found the following advertisement.

Daily Post of Friday 14th of June, 1728.

"WHEREAS there has been a scandalous paper cried about the streets, under the title of "A Popp upon Pope,"

insinuating that I was whipped in Ham walks on Thursday last;-This is to give notice, that I did not stir out of my house at Twickenham, and that the same is a malicious and ill-grounded report.

ALEXANDER POPE."

This is a curious instance of the sore sensibility of the

P. 324. The plan of Middleton's Letter from Rome was taken from a work, published in 1675, by Joshua Stopford, B D. entitled "Pagano-Papismus, or an exact parallel between Rome-Pagan and Rome-Christian in their doctrines and ceremonies."

1784, March.

LXXVII. Bentham and Gray on Saxon and Gothic Architecture.

Ely, April 17.

MR. URBAN, HAVING lately observed Mr. Gray's Treatise on Gothic Architecture, and Mr. Bentham's Account of Saxon, Norman, and Gothic Architecture, frequently cited, and their notions and sentiments generally to coincide, nay, oftentimes to be expressed in the very same words;-Mr. B. quite at a loss to account for these extraordinary circumstances, and how to discover the occasion of so remarkable a concurrence of sentiments, diction, and opinions, made all the inquiry he could to obtain a sight of Mr. Gray's Treatise abovementioned, but in vain. Supposing it therefore still to remain in MS. or, if printed, to have been communicated only to some of Mr. Gray's select friends, he was forced to give over the pursuit. At length, however, by means of your very useful and entertaining Magazine, he has been enabled to unravel the mystery.

Mr. Gray's Treatise, and Mr. Bentham's Account, it seems, are one and the same.

So says your correspondent S. E. in your Magazine for May, 1783, in his remarks on Mr. Ruben D'Moundt. "The

*By Lord Hervey.

work in which Mr. Gray's very curious and judicious obser◄ vations upon Gothic Architecture occur, is Mr. Bentham's History of the Cathedral of Ely, a book with which I am a good deal surprised Mr. R. D'Moundt should be unacquainted, who has exhibited so great a profusion of antiquarian reading. It is proper also that this gentleman should be informed, that Mr. Bentham had very little, if any, interference with the Treatise on Architecture inserted therein, and which alone has rendered it a most curious and valuable book."

After so peremptory an assertion, "That Mr. Bentham had very little, if any, interference, with the Treatise on Architecture inserted in his book," Mr. B. must think himself wanting in that regard he owes to truth, and to his own character, if he did not endeavour to clear up that matter, rectify the mistake, and vindicate himself from the charge of having been obliged to Mr. Gray for that Treatise, and publishing it as his own.

Had Mr. G. been the real author, Mr. B. certainly ought to have been a little more explicit in his acknowledgment of the favour; especially as it would have been no small recommendation of his book, to have informed the reader, that the Treatise on Architecture was composed by so celebrated and distinguished a writer as Mr. Gray.

It was sufficient to Mr. B. that Mr. G. approved of it, and that he furnished him with several hints, of which Mr. B. availed himself, and for which Mr. B. thought proper to make his grateful acknowledgment in his preface; there, indeed, in general terins; but the particulars will appear from Mr. Gray's letters to him inserted below.

The truth is, Mr. B, had written that Treatise long before he had the honour of any acquaintance with Mr. Gray; and it was that which first introduced him to Mr. G.

It may not be improper to observe, that when the first sheet of the introduction was composed for the press in 1764, a proof of it was shewn (by a friend of Mr. B.) to Mr. G. the contents of which related to the first introduction of Christianity into this kingdom, and its progress, to the conversion of the Saxons, &c. This was thought by Mr. G. to have too slight a connection with the principal subject, the History of the Church of Ely. However Mr. B. was not informed of Gray's opinion till it was too late, and the sheet had been put to press.

Some time after (about the beginning of 1765), Mr. G. having expressed a desire to see the following sheets, Mr. B. then at Cambridge, waited on him at Pembroke Hall,

with six of them, and begged the favour of his remarks and correction; and this was the first time that Mr. B. had the pleasure of an hour's conversation on the subject with Mr. G. It happened fortunately that the two last sheets were composed, but not worked off, which gave Mr. B. an opportunity of inserting several additions hinted in Mr. Gray's letter, which he inclosed when he returned the sheets to Mr. B.

A transcript of Mr. Gray's letter to Mr. B. as it sets this matter in a clear light, and will, no doubt, be acceptable and entertaining to your readers, is here subjoined.

Superscribed,

"To the Rev. Mr. Bentham.

"Mr. Gray returns the papers and prints to Mr. Bentham, with many thanks for the sight of them.

"Concludes, he has laid aside his intention of publishing the first four Sections of his Introduction, that contain the settlement and progress of Christianity among the Saxons: as (however curious and instructive in themselves) they certainly have too slight a connection with the subject in hand to make a part of the present work.

"Has received much entertainment and information from his remarks on the state of Architecture among the Saxons, and thinks he has proved his point against the authority of Stow and Somner. The words of Eddius, Richard of Hexham, &c. must be every where cited in the original tongue, as the most accurate translation is in these cases not to be trusted this Mr. B. has indeed commonly done in the MSS. but not every where.

"P. 31. He says, the instances Sir C. Wren brings, were, some of them at least, undoubtedly erected after the Conquest. Sure they were all so without exception.

"There is much probability in what he inserts with respect to the New Norman mode of building; though this is not, nor perhaps can be, made out with so much precision as the former point.

"P. 35. Here, where the author is giving a compendi ous view of the peculiarities that distinguish the Saxon style, it might be mentioned, that they had no tabernacles (or niches and canopies), nor any statues to adorn their buildings on the outside, which are the principal grace of what is called the Gothic; the only exception that I can recollect, is a little figure of Bishop Herebert Losing over the north transept door at Norwich, which appears to be of that time: but this

is rather a mezzo-relievo than a statue, and it is well known, that they used reliefs sometimes with profusion, as in the Saxon gateway of the abbey at Bury, the gate of the temple church at London, and the two gates at Ely, &c.

"The want of pinnacles, and of tracery in the vaults, is afterwards mentioned, but may as well be placed here too (in short), among the other characteristics.

"Escutcheons of arms are hardly (if ever) seen in these fabrics, which are the most frequent of all decorations in after-times.

"P. 34. Beside the chevron work (or zig-zag moulding) so common, which is here mentioned, there was also,

"The Billeted-moulding, as if a cylinder should be cut into small pieces of equal length, and these stuck on alternately round the face of the arches, as in the choir at Peterborough, and at St. Cross, &c.

"The Nail-head, resembling the heads of great nails driven in at regular distances, as in the nave of old St. Paul's, and the great tower of Hereford, &c.

"The Nebule, a projection terminated by an undulating line, as under the upper range of windows, on the outside at Peterborough.

"Then to adorn their vast massive columns there was the spiral-grove winding round shafts, and the net, or lozengework, overspreading them; both of which appear at Durham, and the first in the undercroft at Canterbury.

"These few things are mentioned only, because Mr. Bentham's work is so nearly complete in this part, that one would wish it were quite so. His own observation may doubtless suggest to him many more peculiarities, which, however minute in appearance, are not contemptible, because they directly belong to his subject, and contribute to ascertain the age of an edifice at first sight. The great deficiency is from Henry the VIth's time to the Reformation, when the art was indeed at its height.

"P. 30. At York, under the choir, remains much of the old work, built by Archbishop Roger, of Bishop's-bridge, in Henry Ild's. reign; the arches are but just pointed, and rise on short round pillars, whose capitals are adorned with animals and foliage.

P. 37. Possibly the pointed arch might take its rise from those arcades we see in the early Norman (or Saxon) buildings on walls, where the wide semicircular arches cross and intersect each other, and form thereby at their intersection exactly a narrow and sharp pointed arch. In the wall south of the choir at St. Cross, is a facing of such wide, round,

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