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bill which I once saw on the walls at Salisbury, promising the performance of a tragedy called "The Sea-King's Vow," in which one of the characters was "Mercia, King of Wessex." (I, however, commended the playwright for knowing that a in English is a masculine termination, not like the people who call their daughters Ida and Ella, or the historians who torment one with Edgiva and Editha.) What I did say was of course to point out that the land of the Magesætas did not become English till the time of Offa, and that the first English conqueror who came anywhere near to it was not the Mercian, and, therefore, Anglian, Creoda, but the Welsh-Saxon Ceawlin. I do not understand about Ceawlin's "reaching as far as Malvern." has shown that his conquests reached as far as Cheshire. Unluckily there are people who venture to talk and write about early English history without reading Dr. Guest.

Dr. Guest

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Again, I did not say that Ewias Harold was called after some other Harold." I mentioned the particular Harold, namely Harold, the son of Ralph ("timidus Dux Radulphus ") the son of Godgifu, the daughter of Ethelred and Elfgifu-Emma. He must, however, have got possession of it after the Domesday survey, as Ewias appears there in the possession of Elfred of Marlborough. Harold's own estates in Domesday lie elsewhere.

Having dwelt so long on these weightier historical points, I have no time to talk of merely architectural matters, or I might find something to say about the minsters both of Hereford and of Leominster. I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

Somerleaze, Wells, November 30th, 1867.

EDWARD A. FREEMAN.

Miscellaneous Notices.

CELTIC TUMULI OF DORSET.-This work, in folio, by C. Warne, Esq, F.S A., is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of early British antiquities. It is illustrated with many copper plate engravings and woodcuts, and is the product of long personal research and careful comparison. Two companion works have also been compiled by the same author; one an Illustrated Map of Dorset, of admirable execution, the other Dorsetshire, its Vestiges, Celtic, Roman and Danish, as well as a most useful general index, classified. We may observe that the author has been long favourably known, not only in the county of Dorset, but amongst antiquaries and archæologists generally, as a most persevering and pains-taking enquirer into the early history of his native county; and his object in conducting his researches has been to endeavour thereby to elucidate somewhat of the history of its earliest inhabitants; and to render his work more valuable, he has, in addition to his own investigations, availed himself of the labours of others so far as attainable, by which he is enabled to present a complete history of the tumuli of Dorset.

DAVID HUGHES, M.A., AND HIS FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL AT BEAUMARIS This is a short historical essay compiled by one of our members at Beaumaris, J. Williams, Esq., who is also taking part in the elucidation of antiquities in Anglesey, lately resumed in our pages. We understand that similar researches on local subjects of antiquarian interest are likely to proceed from the same source, and, if so, good service will be done. In the present instance, much curious information is collected, and the pamphlet is a valuable addition to what is already known about Beaumaris. The lists of masters and exhibitioners are interesting, and the collection of Latin prayers (not very correctly printed, however) is curious. There is a great deal to be said about the old families, family houses, traditions and customs of Anglesey, as well as about its early remains, and we rejoice at finding the attention of some of our more active members again directed to the subject. The biographical account of David Hughes, the worthy founder (1603), is peculiarly well drawn up; we should like to see equally comprehensive accounts of all our old grammar schools in Wales.

Reviews.

THE ARCHEOLOGY OF THE PEAK OF DERBYSHIRE. By HENRY H. VALE, Architect, Liverpool.

THIS is the title of a paper by an author whose account of the South Wales castles we recently mentioned. Like it, this short pamphlet, the form which it has taken since it was read to the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, is written in a lively graphic manner well calculated to interest the general reader, at the same time that it may instruct him. The subject is full of opportunities for effecting this double purpose, and the author profits by them with skill. His account of Haddon Hall is peculiarly interesting to the architect and antiquary, as well as to the uninformed tourist; but he is also a good describer of natural scenery, and his account of the caverns and other wonders of the Peak constitutes this pamphlet into a satisfactory guide-book to the district.

His criticisms on Chatsworth and Haddon are good.

"Sir Jeffrey Wyattville (?) designed Chatsworth House, but Derbyshire should have inspired his genius with a style more in harmony with the scenery-the Tors, the caverns, the dales, shut in by limestone walls of rugged splendour-but Sir Jeffrey fell upon evil times, which must be his apology. Most of the contemporaneous Derbyshire and Cheshire houses possess very similar characteristics-wings and pediments, pilasters, urns and vases, ad nauseam, being the architectural incubi of the time, as we shall find at Lyme Hall, Burleigh House, Worksop Manor, and Chatsworth. In how much better taste Vanbrugh treated his works, Castle Howard and Blenheim, with their irregularly broken-up but well balanced plans and glorious sky-lines, like some of the earlier Elizabethan houses, such as Wollaton and the home of Bess of Hardwick and grand old Haddon Hall, where we hope to linger awhile, after exhausting the wonders of Chatsworth, for in spite of all adverse criticism, Chatsworth has much for us to see and admire.

Chatsworth is imposing from mere size and grandeur, and its rich tone of colour. Haddon and the other ancient houses touch our English feelings, and we love them. Chatsworth reminds us of Italian grandeur, and it excites our wonder rather than our love.

"The interior of Chatsworth struck us as being bare and cold, and with the exception of the sculpture gallery, and the original sketches of great artists, and the wonderful oak carvings that Grinling Gibbons would not have been ashamed to own, we saw nothing to detain us long in the interior of Chatsworth House.

"Not so with the gardens. Whatever Paxton touched he turned to beauty; this will be observed at every turn, and not least in the marvellous ridge and furrow roof, the prototype of all the Crystal Palaces, and filled with the sumptuous foliage of the tropics; plane trees, indiarubber trees, bread plants, and a hundred others, with somewhat less familiar titles, growing here as freshly and luxuriantly as if the broad Pacific's waves still lapped their twisted roots and moistened their green and oily bark cells; growing here, nor feeling our biting winter blasts; growing here, and flourishing in a tropical atmosphere, as if hail, and snow, and sleet, and Derbyshire rain were thousands of miles away, even as those forest monsters grew that formed our mighty coal fields millions of ages ago.

"Looking down from the Eagle Tower at Haddon, we wonder at the perfect state of repair of the roofs and masonry. This ancient structure has already outlived two Chatsworths, and may, if looked to, outlive another Chatsworth yet. Much of this freshness of appearance may be owing to the grand high chimneys, which serve to carry the smoke clean away, and leave the masonry untainted and unimpaired by the products of combustion, which are driven into the stonework by the battery of the elements in most buildings of a classical type, and these soon tell a tale upon the classic urn, statue, and balustrade. We are not of those who would make a modern mansion like the hermit cell of tonsured priest or childless celibate; the bare Gothic of the twelfth century, the pre-Raffaelite in domestic architecture, we would not seek out or encourage; but our middle age houses, such as Haddon, have never been surpassed either in aesthetic or constructive excellence. Here Haddon Hall stands almost unimpaired, and with charms that attract all visitors to linger along its corridors and pace its echoing courtyards, as the imagination endeavours to re-people it with all the celebrated men and beautiful women whose wisdom and excellence speak to us from its painted oriels and fretted roofs and emblazoned panellings."

Celtic antiquaries will do well to make a note of the following: "In the neighbourhood of Hathersage are some curious and interesting remains of ancient British castrametation. The fort called the Carl's work' occupies one end of an isolated hill, the other portions of the hill have steep escarpments that serve for protection.

The object of forts so constructed was for shelter of the garrison and cattle of the adjacent land during the inroads of the enemy. The vallum is about eighteen feet wide; the outer face or scarp is lined with masonry, and extends one hundred and fifty feet in a straight line across the gorge of the hill. There is a gateway seven feet two inches wide on the south side. "Some of the stones of this fort are fourteen feet long and four feet high. The position of the entrance and the arrangements of the approaches display considerable foresight and strategical skill on the part of those who constructed this ancient military work.

"On Eyam Moor are the remains of a stone circle and of a so-called rock basin similar to those of Cornwall and Devonshire, to which so much mystery is attached."

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