There are eries, of which I honestly wish you much joy. medals at Capo di Monte with a pagan triumph on one side, and on the other the monogram of Christ; but connoisseurs told me those were Constantine's, who was, you know, enrolled among the heathen gods; but I can give no account of its connection with a temple to Neptune, and what a little temple it is! only thirty feet long; are you sure it is a temple after all? We had a base-born Constantine in Britayne, had we not, about Honorius's time? he made his son Cæsar if I remember well; was he in Dorsetshire? or was this long room mere private property, and Neptune nothing but an ornament, -as he is now? I should like to know if the P was concealed or plainly set in view. Christians wore them of divers kinds I believe in places of persecution, much as the Royalists in France carried the effigies of Louis Seize about them in unsuspected forms; and the ill treatment of those who professed our religion did not cease immediately in remote parts of the empire, although it ended in the capital after the outspread Labarum had swept its foes away. Perhaps, too, the mark was not unknown to Constantine, when he saw it somehow miraculously displayed with the Greek words expressive of In hoc Signo vinces under it; perhaps (but these are too bold conjectures) it had been a private sign among Christians before, and was exalted only - not first recognized at the grand battle between him and Maxentius. The 24th chapter of St. Matthew and the 30th verse, give one an idea that it shall again appear; as the sign of the Son of Man is there spoken of as preceding our Saviour's second coming. There are medals with another monogram upon them resembling the arbitrary mark of a planet, with a triumph on the other side and a hand held out from the clouds; if they mean Constantine, 't is awkwardly expressed, because he refused to triumph after the ancient manner. I doubt whether Etius, thrice consul, to whom the groans of the Britons was a Christian; Placidia we know was. Could he have had any share in your marine worship? When the sea drove them back to the barbarians who by dint of num * Of Roman antiquities at Woodchester, on which Mr. Samuel Lysons based two valuable publications. bers forced them forward on the sea, perhaps they tried what pleasing old Neptune might do for them; some heathens in the Roman army might recommend the measure. Numberless are the connections between Christian and pagan ornaments in Italy. I saw a Madonna in the Vatican with Cybele's tower on her head, and other insignia of that goddess, from the workman's confusion, as it appears, between Mater Dei and Mater Deorum; and there is an altar in the church where Sannazarius reposes at Naples, decorated with the story of Jupiter and Leda. But I have left no room for Mr. Piozzi's compliments: he talks of being at Streatham Park early next spring, where I hope to thank you for many a kind letter received before that time. Write soon, do, and believe me ever with just esteem, Dear Sir, yours and your brother's obliged To the Rev. Daniel Lysons. H. L. P. Brynbella, Thursday. (No other date, and no post-mark.) * DEAR MR. LYSONS, Accept a renewal of inquiries, literary and domestic; but 't is for yourself I inquire; your brother, we know, is well and busy with his subterranean discoveries. What statues has he found? they will be very valuable; and tell me for mercy's sake what this Apology for the Bible means: we live in fine times sure when the Bible wants an apology from the bishops. How is Mr. Burke's book received? and what will his regicide peace be? I see no sign of peace except in the books: for they make them ready to battle in all parts of the world, and we shall have the Turks upon us directly if we chase French ships into their very harbors so. No matter! my half-crown for Flo shall be willingly contributed, though I do think seriously that the Dog Tax and Repeal of Game Laws will have an exceeding bad effect on the country, where gentlemen will want inducements to remain when hunting and coursing and shooting are at an end. Horses will lower in price, however, and little oats will be sown at all. I think democracy in all her insidiousness could not have contrived a more certain principle of levelling, and Bishop Watson's celebrated answer to Paine and Gibbon. republicanism in all her pride could not plan more perfect gratification than that of seeing the young farmers' sons cocking their guns in face of a landlord upon whom no man feeling any dependence, he will shelter himself among the crowds of London, and prefer being jostled at Vauxhall by his taylor, to the being robbed of innocent amusements by those who were bred on his land, and fed on his bounty.* Our Chester paper even now reproaches the rich with their donations of bread and meat, which are already styled insults on the poor's independence; and Mr. Chappelon, who has been here on a visit, protested he was glad to get alive out of Norfolk, because he had presumed to give his parishioners barley and potatoe bread, baked in his own oven. I wish you would write me a long letter, and tell me a great deal about the living world; and something of the dead too, for I see Mr. Howard's epitaph, but cannot guess who wrote it. Vortigern will, I trust, be condemned almost without a hearing, so completely does the laugh go against it. This is the age of forgeries. I never read of so many causes célèbres in that way as of late; but poor, dear Mrs. Siddons saves Ireland awhile, I suppose, by her ill health, and keeps Miss Lee from fame and fortune which she expects to acquire by "Almeyda." Does Madame D'Arblay's novel promise well? Fanny wrote better before she was married than since, however that came about. I understand nothing concerning the young baronet that lost so much at backgammon. Those tales are seldom true to the extent they are related: much like the stories of mad dogs, which chiefly exist in newspapers; but I fear Lady Westmeath's Divorce Bill, like Mrs. Mullins, will carry conviction of her infidelity all over the world. We knew her and her lord at Bath very well. I try every time I write to get some intelligence of the Beavor family, but without effect. Selden says marriage is the act of a man's life which least concerns his acquaintance, yet, adds he, 't is the very act of his life which they most busy themselves about. Now Heaven knows, I * If indignation makes verses, it does not supply syntax; and this sentence, which I have not attempted to correct, bears a strong resemblance to that of the county member who described Sir Robert Peel as "not the sort of man that you could put salt upon his tail." never did disturb myself or him by Dr. Gillies's marriage, though it affected me exceedingly; his amiable lady and her family being of my most favorite acquaintance, and they are all lost to me somehow. Mr. Rogers' name has crost me but once since we left London either: it was when he gave evidence in favor of that anagrammatic Mr. Stone, who wrote his name backwards, as witches are said to do; who deal in deeds of darkness, and sing * "When good kings bleed we rejoice," &c. How does your book of fashionable dresses go on? it must, I think, receive some curious additions by what one hears and sees; for a caricature print of a famous fine lady who leads the Mode has already reached poor little Denbigh. To the Rev. Daniel Lysons. Brynbella, Tuesday Evening, 1797. I THANK you very sincerely for the entertaining letter I received the other day. Indeed, my dear Sir, you can scarcely imagine how much a cargo of London chat enlivens our conversation here in the country, where those deceased topics of the town revive and flourish which were withering away upon their native seed-bed. When you have anything fit for transplantation, pray send hither, where there is more soil than trees in almost every sense. Burke's pamphlet and his answerers are in full bloom with us now; but you have forgotten them, I trust, and are busy about what is in succession. Miss Thrale has promised me Watson's Apology. Could you, as you walk about and examine books upon stalls, find me a second, or third, or thirteenth-hand History of Poetry, by Warton, or of Music, by Hawkins, I should be much obliged to you; but it must be under a guinea price. I have the good editions myself at Streatham Park. Your book of "Ladies' Dresses" must have received curious addition, by what I see and hear of the present fashions; but cutting off hair is the foolishest among the foolish. When they are tired of going without clothes, 't is easy putting them on again; but what they will *On Stone's trial, the author of "The Pleasures of Memory" proved a conversation with him in the streets, tending to show that he made no mystery of that which was charged as treasonable. do for the poor cropt and shorn heads, now there are no convents, I cannot guess. Do people rejoice now wheat falls in price? they made heavy lament when it was high, or do we only sigh for peace that we may be at leisure to meditate mischief? And so I see that both Ministry and Opposition have at last agreed in one point; they join against the Lapdogs : "So when two dogs are fighting in the streets, With angry teeth he bites him to the bone, And this dog smarts for what that dog had done." These verses are somewhat too soft and mellifluous for the occasion, being Fielding's, but I half long to address a doggrel epistle to Mr. Dent; he would be as angry as Mr. Parsons, no doubt, and I understand his wrath is very great. What becomes of Ireland, I wonder, now his solemn mockery is ended. It was a forged bill, you see, and the public did well to protest it.† If Mrs. Siddons was to work at Drury Lane all winter and run about all summer, she would have had no enjoyment of Putney; and the young ones, for whose sake she is to work and run, would never have delighted in an out of town residence. Cecilia is coming to the scene of action, London, where I think there were enough just such half-hatched chickens without her and Mr. Mostyn adding to the number; but then they do not care what I think, so 't is all one. The Bishop of Bangor likes Wales no better than she does, I suppose, but he ought not to have said so; because an old bishop should be wiser than a pretty wench, and much will be endured from her, very little from him, especially in these days; he is got into a cruel embarrassment. Tell something about our Princess of Wales and her domestiques, and of our infant queen-expectant, pretty creature! I should somehow like to see that baby excessively. My hope is *Who gained the nickname of Dog Dent by this piece of legislation. t Vortigern" was acted and damned on April 2, 1796. The last audible line was "And when this solemn mockery is o'er," which Kemble was accused of uttering in a manner to precipitate the catas trophe. |