Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

1822.]

A late eminent Architect defended.

ticular instance to which he refers, that he would abuse his contemporaries for removing an old wall possessing not the slightest relic of an ornament, that interfered with a useful, nay a national improvement." I cannot but regard the whole of the extraneous passage from which I have made these quotations, as an undefined attack on some other individuals besides the deservedly celebrated one I now vindicate, to wound whom, "Y." is indeed willing, but afraid to strike boldly. At all events, the passage casts an unpardonable slur on the venerable and worthy Alderman Fletcher, of Oxford, who possesses perhaps the most extensive and curious collection of ancient relics in England; and who is acknowledged to have contributed a valuable portion of the information contained in the description of " Cum

nor."

"Y.” says that he knew the "Antiquary;" and so did I, and I also know every relic of ancient sculpture in wood and stone, painted glass, and armour which he possessed; I purchased some of the choicest specimens of all these; and I have now before me a complete and authentic catalogue of these articles of curiosity.

There are many tombs whose beauties are "unrivalled" in the different styles of their erection; such for instance as the tombs of Aylmer de Valence and Crouchback, in Westminster Abbey; that of the Percy's in Beverley minster; and those of CardiDal Beaufort, Bishop Waynflete, and Bishop Fox, in Winchester Cathedral. I forbear, at present, to say whether the "Antiquary" had or had not a relic of one or of several of these moauments; but I will venture to assert that he never defaced an ancient tomb for the sake of possessing one of its ornaments, the use and value of which are gone so soon as it is removed from the fabric to which it belonged. The regard of my late friend for every thing which bore the stamp of antiquity, ma illimitable and sincere, his emas

nation of Grecian architecture was Also very great: but though he preferred the study of the former, yet tach was his veneration for the monuIt was the common practice of the

deceased to label all his curious relics, so that his friends, real and affected, were mabled to ascertain from whence they were rooved.

103

ments of the latter, that if a plan for altering any part of St. Paul's Cathedral had been proposed, he would have exerted his talents to save that noble edifice from innovation. He styled himself an "Architect," and he had acquired the science to erect another St. Stephen's Chapel, if a similar building had been demanded; but such was his scrupulous adherence to the models of antiquity, that even lucrative motives would never induce him to deviate from them in the least particular; therefore his title was never confirmed by his employment. So far as preserve from wanton havoc those beautiful monuments of our pious ancestors which have escaped the ravages of the reformation, I applaud his intention; and if he had occupied as many of your valuable pages in condemning the vile practice of collecting where there are no broken and scattered relics, and recommending the guardians of our ancient Churches to keep a watchful eye on their monuments and other decorative objects, while under the inspection of the curious, as he has filled with a sort of illustrated description of a little village (upon the conclusion of which description I congratulate you and your readers), he would have merited the thanks of the chartered Society of Antiquaries, and I should then have placed him in the rank with that great antiquary whose character has been traduced.

66 Y." has endeavoured to

I have troubled you, Mr. Urban, with but a few remarks on a subject which would admit of extensive observation. In concluding for the present, I beg to say, that having been intimately acquainted with the " Architect" nearly half a century, I knew his worth, and have reason to respect his memory; and that he shall never be wantonly aspersed during the life of Yours, &c.

YOUR

K.

Feb. 4.

Mr. URBAN, Your correspondent "Puff'" inquires, why a recess in a room occasions no "peculiar current of air" in its vicinity? and why, if the recess be converted into a closet, the air draus through every little crevice, and becomes painfully troublesome? A slight attention to the properties of air, and to their consequences, will furnish, I apprehend, a solution of your Corresponden's

104

Currents of Air.-Portrait of Secretary Walsingham.

spondent's "problem" The grand, leading property of air is its elasticity; and, in reference to this property, air is said to be dense or rare, heavy or light. Whatever destroys its equilibrium, by acting on some parts with greater force than on others, puts it into agitation, and produces that stream or current of air which is called wind. A recess being open in part to the room, the air of both may be considered as the same air; or, if they differ at all in temperature, from accidental causes, the difference is too small ever to produce a peculiar current of air. On the contrary, a closet is not open to the room; and, in consequence of its inclosure, a free communication between the two airs is so obstructed

as that each has its peculiar temperature. The air of the closet is dense and cool; that of the room, on account of its rarefaction by heat, becomes comparatively light. And as the air of the closet retains its elasticity, undiminished by expansion, it obtrudes itself, through every little crevice it can find, into the warmer, lighter air of the room. It carries with it of course its own temperature; which being low, the difference of temperature, on its issuing from the crevices, must be sensibly felt by those in the room who happen to be near. Equalize the two temperatures, by

MR. URBAN,

[Feb.

throwing open the closet-door, the
effect ceases. Perhaps your Correspon-
dent may ask, is the cool air of the
closet to be always issuing; and is the
warm air of the room never to enter,
to supply its place, or change its tem-
perature? How this may be, with
respect to always and never, I cannot
say; but I may venture to affirm, that,
so long as the air from the closet fully
occupies the crevices, so long will it
be impossible for that from the room
to enter. A lighter air can never op-
pose itself to a heavier; but the con-
verse of the proposition holds good at
all times.
R. S.

I

MR. URBAN,

Feb. 6. HAPPEN to possess an old portrait, finely painted on pannel, said, traditionally, to be of Secretary Walsingham; but on the dark background (apparently of the same age as the rest of the painting) is this inscription: FRAN. BINDLOS, 1655. This name is probably that of the painter or of the subject; but I can find no painter of that name in any of the dictionaries. Perhaps some of your Correspondents may be able to give me some information as to Fran. Bindlos. I ought to say that the physiognomy appears to me to be decidedly English.

F. B.

Enfield, Feb. 25.

N order to illustrate my remark, vol. XCI. part ii. p. 208, I request you to

Insert the autograph alluded to, bearing date May 8, 1012.

Myddelton

As also of another Baronet, a descendant of the said Sir Hugh, dated March

29, 1654:

Hugh Myddetton

Yours, &c.

m.

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]

Rev. T. D. Whitaker, LL.D. F. S. A.

REV. THOMAS DUNHAM WHITAKER,

LL. D. F. S. A.

As an ac

HAVEN, it is hoped, a satisfactory WAVING in our last Number Memoir of Dr. Whitaker, we have now great pleasure in presenting our Readers with his Portrait. companiment, we will slightly notice his ancestors and descendants. Dr. Whitaker's ancestors, in a direct line, have been seated at the Holme, at the least as early as the middle of the fifteenth century. The Whitakers were not only connected by marriage with the first families of Lancashire, the Sherburnes, Townleys, Stanleys, Harringtons, and Nowells, but allied to a constellation of distinguished ecclesiastics, whose erudition and talents were superior to their stations: among whom may be enumerated, Alexander and Laurence Nowell, respectively Deans of St. Paul's and Lichfield; and Woolton, Bishop of Exeter, whose daughter married Francis Godwyn, Bishop of Hereford (son of Thomas Godwyn, Bishop of Bath and Wells), the learned commentator "De Presulibus Angliæ.” .

Amongst these celebrated divines shone conspicuously, perhaps the most eminent man of his family, Dr. William Whitaker, Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, who was born (saith Fuller) in the first year of that pious Prince, Edward VI. at the manor of Holme, in the parish of Burnley, co. Lancaster." In the same house, after an interval of more than 250 years, did the descendant of his elder brother write the elegant Life of him, which appears in the "History of Whalley." The Master of St. John's died at the early age of 48. "He was a man of acute and strong understanding, exercised in the most difficult questions of theology; he was also celebrated by his contemporaries for the mildness of his controversial style." Bishop Hall thus panegyrises him :

"That honour of our schools, and angel of our Church, learned Whitaker, than whom our age saw nothing more memorable. What clearness of judgment; what sweetness of style; what gravity of person; what grace of carriage; was in that man. Whoever saw him without reverence, or beard him without wonder?"

We shall now give, in Dr. Whitaker's own words, an account of his seat at Holme, a very appropriate haGENT. MAG. February, 1822.

103

bitation for a contemplative Antiquary;
and also of the appendant chapel, re-
founded chiefly at his own cost:

"The house at Holme, like most of the
antient structures in the neighbourhood,
was originally built of wood: the centre
and Eastern wing were rebuilt in 1603, or
before. The West end remained of wood
till 1717, and had one or more private clo-
sets for the concealment of priests, the fa-
ter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, if not
mily having continued Recusants to the lat-
later. The house became, by successive
alterations, though an irregular, not an in-
convenient habitation.

а

"Appendant to this demesne was chantry founded after the dissolution of Whalley Abbey, and dissolved 1 Edward VI. The chantry lands were sold to Thomas Whitaker, of Holme, gent. (the supposed founder.)

"After the dissolution, it was consider

ed as the property of the family; and, by a ruin, continued without a minister 200 singular fate, though never reduced to a years, when Anthony Wetherhead, A.M. was licensed to it, 1742, on the nomination of Thos. Whitaker of Holme, gent. He died in 1760, aged 80. His successor was Wm. Halliwell, who died in 1796, and he was succeeded by Dr. Whitaker, on his own petition.

"The first step towards a re-endowment of this poor neglected foundation was a rent-charge of 11. per annum, left by Mr. Henry Wood, a native of this place, who topher Wren during the rebuilding of St. had been clerk of the works under Sir ChrisPaul's Cathedral. This was followed by several successive benefactions from Queen Anne's Bounty, which, with a donation of 4001. from Dr. Whitaker, making in the whole 1600/. are all vested in lands, amounting to a glebe of 130 acres.

"The old chantry was a rude but picturesque little building, only 42 feet by 18 within, It was built of irregular but very deep courses of masonry, of which there were only six from the foundation to the

roof. The walls were filled with groutwork, and the lime with which they were hazle-roots and coal, gathered as it might filled had been burnt with a mixture of seem in the neighbouring cloughs. The quire is remembered to have been adorned with Gothic carved work and inscriptions. The curious perforated old pulpit of Henry VIII.'s time only remains, together with some relicks of a library, consisting principally of controversial divinity, and once reposited in an 'aumery' at the East end.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinua »