antiquary in the hands of the sequestrators, whose proceedings we recommend to the consideration of their admirers. Then succeed Miscellanea, illustrative of Wyatt's Rebellion, Kent Worthies, Letters and Wills, and lastly, further instalments of Pedes Finium and Inquisitiones post Mortem, which, we are glad to see, are not to be abandoned. Their publication, as we have before remarked, is of national importance. k One article, which we have reserved for our conclusion, is a notice, by Mr. Larking, of the late Rev. Thomas Streatfeild, of Chart's Edge. This gentleman, who died in 1848, aged 71', devoted much the greater part of his life, and a very large amount of pecuniary means, to the collection of materials for a new History of Kent; and he has left behind him, not only manuscripts and drawings which may be counted by the thousand, but upwards of 600 copper-plates and wood-blocks all cut expressly for the work. Besides employing his own pencil (he was a masterly artist as well as a faithful copyist), he retained Mr. Herbert Smith to copy the portraits of Kent worthies, and he had Mr. Stainsby, the wood-engraver, almost constantly in his house cutting blocks of seals and other relics. He put forth the prospectus of his County History in 1836, and so warmly was it received, that not only were the records and muniments of all the ancient Kentish families freely offered to his investigation, but in a few weeks he had forwarded to him the names of more than 300 subscribers, who had confidence that his talents and industry would give them their money's worth for the twenty guineas and upwards that the work was to cost. Well may Mr. Larking exclaim, "Even in Kent, a parallel instance of honourable support is hardly on record." But as far as Mr. Streatfeild was concerned, this was not to be : great work on an early day after At the very moment of exulting "He hoped to commence the publication of his the issue of his prospectus. 'Deo aliter visum. thankfulness that he had been spared to inaugurate the darling project of his life,a history of our county surpassing any that had ever been produced or conceived, on a scale grand and perfect, such as 'posterity should be unwilling to forget,' he was struck with paralysis, and all the brilliant prospects which had allured himself and delighted his friends vanished for ever. Verily, on the choicest objects of human ambition has the finger of our God written 'Vanity!"" It must surely be an object with every lover of county history that so much labour should not be allowed to have been expended in vain. It is true that Kent is not without its historians; on the contrary, it is more favoured in that respect than many other districts; but it must be allowed that Lambarde, Phillpott, Harris, and Hasted (not to mention minor h See GENT. MAG., Feb. 1861, p. 140 et seq. Ibid., July, 1848, p. 99. This gentleman furnished a paper on Kentish Brasses to the first volume of the Society's Proceedings, as mentioned in GENT. MAG., Sept. 1859, p. 244. Among these we may mention Cuthbert Vaughan, Archbishops Warham and Cranmer, Sir Philip Sydney, Algernon Sydney, Sir Thomas Heneage, Sir Moyle Finch, the two Twysdens (Sir Roger and his brother the Judge), Sir E. Dering, Sir Norton Knatchbull, Col. Boys, Sir E. Filmer, Lambarde, &c. names) have left much to be done by such men as Mr. Streatfeild and Mr. Larking. The first has finished his course, and from the second we have to expect little more than the supervision of the work of others," younger, and more competent." His plea of "advancing years, and the absorbing duties of a holy calling," may be good as to entrusting much active work to "younger" labourers, but "more competent" ones will not readily be found; at any rate the work should not be deferred, lest the supervision, the "speeding on of the good work," which Mr. Larking proffers, should also be lost. We understand that something like the following plan will be adopted, if, as we can hardly doubt will be the case, sufficient names are sent in to represent a guarantee fund of £6,000. The command of this sum, it is calculated, will ensure the printing of the work in several handsome quartos, abounding in illustrations by copper-plates and woodcuts, which, judging from the specimens in the volume before us, will be all that such illustrations should be, both as to accuracy and beauty. It is proposed to have one editor in chief (for whose competency Mr. Larking would pledge himself), and subordinate editors for all the several departments that should be found in a really complete work on Kent. If we might indulge in the dream of naming the brilliant corps, we should strive to secure their services as follows :-For Primæval, Roman, and Saxon remains, Mr. Roach Smith; for parochial history, that of the respective incumbents; general history, if such a hope might be entertained, should be the province of one who has already treated of St. Augustine, and Becket, and all the glories of Canterbury,—we need not name him,—and, as we are taught by his paper in this volume, the Rev. R. Jenkins, of Lyminge; architecture, charters and documents, and genealogy, would all pass through hands well accustomed to each department; and the physical features of the county, its geology, botany, and zoology, its farming, its manufactures, and, in one phrase, its social condition, would be treated of in a way to connect the present with the past and the past with the present, fusing all into one harmonious whole, and thus shewing the real ends and aims of such associations as the Kent Archæological Society. What degree of support the Society, as such, is about to afford to the projected publication, we know not, but probably it will be found that nothing more than good wishes and hearty recommendation can be relied on. Its members individually must do the work, if it is to be done at all. Comprising, as these do, so large a proportion of the wealth and intelligence of the county, we really cannot anticipate any difficulty in the matter. A committee of management could easily be formed from among the noblemen and gentlemen who had signed the guarantee bond, and their names would give such confidence that a speedy filling up of the subscription list would be the natural consequence. No one who has a material interest in the honour and prosperity of Kent need fear that he will involve himself in unpleasant liabilities by signing the guarantee, for that the re sponsibility would be merely nominal may be fairly presumed, from the readiness with which Mr. Streatfeild's original prospectus was responded to. Added to this is the consideration, that since the design was first announced, an alteration of the law of partnership has been effected, which would allow of the formation of a joint-stock company with limited liability for the purpose of producing the work. Publication would hardly be a proper term, as of course it would only be issued to subscribers; and, after allowing ample payment to the editor and suitable remuneration for valuable service to all concerned (with one exception), it is believed that the price would be materially less than was at first stated, a result brought about by the liberality with which the representatives of Mr. Streatfeild place all his labour and costs at the disposal of the county at a merely nominal sum. The one exception to the rule that the labourer is worthy of his hire is made by Mr. Larking in his own case. He declines all remuneration-due honour to his friend, and their common native county, suffice for him; and as these are days in which such disinterestedness is not always met with, we trust that the nobility and gentry of Kent will not be so indifferent to their own interests as to neglect an opportunity that may never again be offered to them. "For ourselves," says Mr. Larking, "it will be a subject of gratitude, should we be spared to evince the love and veneration that we ever must retain for our dear friend's memory, by speeding on the work. It was the uppermost wish in our heart, as we bent over his grave, and took our last leave of his remains, that we might be enabled to testify our affection, and to perpetuate his memory, by giving to the world that which he was not permitted himself to complete. Our day, however, as we have already intimated, is gone by. Our heart's desires must now be carried out by others; but, in this spirit, we appeal to all who prize the honour and historic glories of our county, that they will enable us to realize, with regard to THOMAS STREATFEILD, the boast of the great Roman biographer,-‘Quicquid ex Agricola amavimus, quicquid mirati sumus, manet, mansurumque est.' "So will it be to us a gratification beyond price, albeit accompanied by many a sorrowful remembrance, that our appeal has not been in vain. 'Manibus date lilia plenis, Purpureos spargam flores, animamque . His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani We have already intimated that Mr. Larking has deserved well of Kentish proprietors by his labour in rendering accessible the Pedes Finium and Inquisitiones post Mortem, wherein so many of them will find a clear title to their lands provided for them without the expense, delay, and uncertainty of legal advicem, and we cannot believe that so enlightened and wealthy a body will let his present proposition fall to the ground. m GENT. MAG., Feb. 1861, p. 144. GENT. MAG. VOL. CCXI. 4 A* NEALE'S NOTES ON DALMATIA, &c.a THIS is a very singular book, and evidently the production of an eccentric and extraordinary character. It contains rough materials sufficient for two or three distinct works, each calculated for a separate class of readers, if the author would only have been at the pains to work up his rough "Notes" into a readable shape; but in their present form they are a confused, undigested mass of deep learning, careful observation, stirring incidents of travel, and very obscure archæology, making up a mélange of which one-third will be found interesting and entertaining by many, the remaining two-thirds entirely unintelligible to most, and singularly out of place in a book of travels. We are, however, indebted to Mr. Neale for a good deal of curious information respecting districts seldom visited and little known; and although the main object of his journey seems to have been a theological one, to obtain information respecting the Glagolita Rite, for which our readers in general care very little, this does not detract from the value of the information obtained incidentally on other subjects. The chief fault which we find with the archæological portion of the book, with which we are chiefly concerned, is that the author seems to delight in making it as hard and unintelligible as possible to ordinary readers. This is the more provoking and tantalizing because he shews in several instances his power of telling us the actual or probable dates of the buildings, and giving us a plain, intelligible account of them; but he will not do so, because he will not give up the absurd gibberish of the particular small school, or clique, to which he belongs: possibly Mr. Neale may be able to tell us what was the date and the character of the first Pointed style in these eastern provinces of Europe, but he does not condescend to give his readers the smallest clue to it; and certainly no man can say what will be the last Pointed style anywhere; and how we are to know the middle without knowing either the beginning or the ending passes our comprehension. Again, we can scarcely guess what period is meant by the Early Romanesque in Dalmatia; we may conjecture that it means the earliest imitations of Roman, but of what period are they? We cannot understand why a small volume of travels, well calculated to be highly interesting to the general reader, should be disfigured by so many hard words, which no one who happens to be ignorant of the Greek language can possibly understand, and which are puzzling even to those "Notes, Ecclesiological and Picturesque, on Dalmatia, Croatia, Istria, Styria, with a Visit to Montenegro. By the Rev. J. M. Neale, M.A., Warden of Sackville College." (London: Hayes. 12mo., 208 pp.) who have had the benefit of a classical education. The sole object appears to be to render the volume entirely useless to the uninitiated, as if intended only for a very small and special class of persons of the particular school in theology of which Mr. Neale is a leader. But why should it have been confined to them? What ordinary reader can understand such terms as Bezirk, soleas, narthex? If such technical terms were necessary, Mr. Neale might have condescended to add a few foot-notes, or a glossary at the end, for the use of the unlearned. His own learning is so deep that he cannot comprehend or make allowance for the ignorance of others. How many persons of ordinary education, who take up this book for amusement, have ever heard of the Glagolita Rite before? This subject occupies a third of the volume, and that portion of the work contains a great deal of learning from which the information may be gleaned; but two or three pages of Introduction, to explain the object and plan of the work and the subjects of which it treats, are much needed. But we critics who sit at home at ease must give due credit to those who give up their time, their strength, and their money to exploring new districts for us, often not without great fatigue, and sometimes considerable danger, as is evident from parts of this book, though they are modestly told, without any fuss or pretensions based upon them. We confine ourselves to the archæological part of the book, and merely observe in passing that the author seems to have a singular sympathy with those who stand or have stood in an isolated position, such as the Glagolitans, and Antonio de Dominis, of whom a very good biographical sketch is introduced; though we are tempted to ask what it does here? and whether it is not rather out of place? Mr. Neale begins with a short account of Austria Proper, and shews a strong feeling in favour of the Austrian government and autocrats in general, with which we are not concerned, so we pass on to our proper subject: "The Valley of the Danube, then, from Donauwerth to Passau, abounds in churches, for the most part framed in the same mould. Generally speaking, small, they have chancel or nave with north or south aisle; tower, anywhere rather than at the west end; tallish, the square surmounted by, not bevelled into, an octagon: and that finished by a (later) bulb and spirelet. The square preponderates over the apsidal east end; and the further we advance east, the more completely is this the case. Who will solve for us this great problem ?-Why is England the mother country of the one, France of the other, school? and why do stone vaultings and gabled towers belong to the latter, wooden roofs and square towers, or spires, to the former? This, I take it, is one of the deepest questions in ecclesiology."-(p. 3.) This is a very curious and interesting question, which we should be glad to see properly investigated; but Mr. Neale does not throw much light upon it. "And now two tall Venetian towers lifted themselves up on a distant hill; and passing through, for an hour more, a succession of the same scenery, we began to GENT. MAG. VOL. CCXI. 4 B |