18 Account of Michel Dean, Gloucestershire. son Christopher had livery of this manor, 3d Edw. VI. He dying March 5, livery was granted the same year to his brother Richard, as it was to Robert, 9th Eliz. and to Joseph Baynham, 14th Eliz. Among the memoranda kept in the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's Office, is an entry of a process in the nature of a quo warranto, against Charles Foxe, esq. to show cause why the manor of Michell Deane should not be seized into the hands of the Queen by reason of alienation, Michaelmas, 18th Eliz. Thomas Baynham had livery of the fourth part of the manor of Mitchel Dean, and of the third part of the advowson of the rectory, 20th Eliz. It afterwards became the property of Sir Robert Woodruffe; then came into the family of the Colchesters; and Maynard Colchester, esq. of Gloucester, is the present lord of the manor. Walter de Lacy gave his lands in Dene to the Abbey of Gloucester, which gift the King confirmed, 14th William I. Roger de Staunton gave the watercourse of Dene and of Clinch to the said Abbey, 7th Richard I.; and the Abbey held lands in Dean of Edward Earl of March, 3d Henry VI. The inhabitants of Dean had a right of estovers and pasturage in the Forest of Dean, 7 Hen. III. On a perambulation of the boundaries of the Forest of Dean by 19 Regarders of the Forest, in the latter end of the reign of Charles II., it was declared that the boundary of the parish of Mitchel Dean formed part of the boundaries of the Forest; and in the same reign the inhabitants of Mitchel Dean united with those of the other parishes round the Forest, and the foresters, in a sort of petition to Henry Lord Herbert, Lord Lieutenant of the County, and Constable of the Castle of St. Briavel's, and the rest of the Commissioners for the Forest, asserting their right to common, of pasture, herbage, and pawnage, estovers, houseboot, hey-boot, and fire-boot, and liberty to dig stone under and according to the government of the Court of Swanimote, and attachments in the said Forest, paying to his Majesty's Exchequer the yearly rent of one penny, called swine silver, or herbage money; and one penny, called smoke penny, or mark money, for every house, and complaining of an in [Jan. fringement of their right by the sale of 18,000 acres to Sir John Wintour, knt. and the disafforesting the same, and praying the same might be restored. The Charter of Henry Duke of Normandy, and Earl of Anjou, afterwards Henry II. granted to the monks, who were about to build the neighbouring abbey at Flaxley, among other things, "all the land under the old Castle of Dene, which remains to be assarted, and that which is already assarted ;' but there is not at present the slightest vestige or tradition of a castle in Dean, and it is probable, from the manner of describing it, it was then only a ruin. In the Charter of Henry II. to Flaxley Abbey, the monks settling there are called the Monks of Dean." Formerly this town enjoyed a share of the clothing trade; and, some years ago, a small copper coin was found in a field near the town, which appears to be a token issued by one of the tradesmen of the town; and from its contiguity to the Forest, in which there were then immense numbers of deer, there were two large manufactories of buck and doe-skin leather, and also some glove manufactories. On the failure of the clothing trade, making was carried on here; that however, with all the other manufactories, ceased several years ago, since which the only trade carried on is the making of nails, and that to no great extent. About 20 years ago there were several respectable families resident here, but nearly all of them are now extinct, or have left the place. Michel Deane now bears very few even of the wrecks of its prosperity, and exhibits a striking monument of the instability of earthly affairs and establishments. The Church (see Plate II.) is a rectory in the deanery of the Forest, worth about 70l. a year. Mr. Colchester is patron, and Mr. Edw. Jones is the present incumbent. The Church is a large and handsome though plain building, with two ailes; its length, from East to West, in that part where the chancel is, is 82 feet; and, exclusive of the chancel, the length is 73 feet; the width, from North to South, 72 feet; so that, exclusive of the chancel, it forms a large square. It has a tower, containing a clock with chimes, and eight good bells, and surmounted by 1822.] Little Dean Cross-Royal Exchange. by an elegant and lofty steeple at the (To be continued.) 19 Sir Christopher Wren, who built this handsome structure immediately after, the demolition of the former one, in the Conflagration of 1666. It must be admitted that the Royal Exchange, as it originally appeared, was very rarely admired for the beauty and chasteness of its design; there was, however, an admirable harmony in its general proportions which could not escape observation, or be viewed without approval; but, owing to the narrowness of the street in which it stands, and the still more censurable economy of planting shops and stalls in almost every arch and corner, it was never seen to advantage. Each wing of the South front contains an open arcade of three rusticated arches; with as many windows in an incumbent story, supported by three-quarter columns and pilasters clustered, and surmounted by an entablature and balustrades. The centre part (I describe the unaltered pile) consisted of a noble arch flanked by broad piers, with double Corinthian columns, whose entablatures gave support to semicircular pediments, surmounted by parapets, which were joined, or nearly so, to the basement Jan. 2. of the tower, a lofty structure of three stories, variously proportioned, and all square, excepting the uppermost, which was an irregular octagon, and diminutive, each story being less than the one on which it stood, thus accomplishing that graceful and beautiful outline in which Sir Christopher Wren so eminently excelled, and in which our architects, among other peculiarities, frequently endeavour to be his imitators *. Mr. URBAN, IN the village of Little Dean, Gloucestershire, was recently a very complete and fine, though small Market Cross, the basis of stone, the upper part of wood, cut into Gothic niches, of rich tabernacle work; the whole having that gorgeous shrinelike aspect, which distinguishes Crosses of the fifteenth Century, with their finials, crockets, rampant animals, with vanes, angels with shields, &c. &c. Passing through the village in June last, I perceived that it was being taken down, because inconvenient for the turn of the road. Several gentlemen's seats surround the spot, and I hope that it has been re-erected in one of their adjacent parks or grounds. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, ANTIQUARIUS. Jan. 3. DESCRIPTION of the new A Tower of the Royal Exchange having been given in a former Number (vol. XCI. Pt. ii. p. 112), of your Magazine, I may, perhaps, be allowed to er a few remarks on its substructore, which has sustained alterations apparently more agreeable to the taste of the present times, than to that of No alteration of the original design has taken place, excepting in the centre, and no improvement has been effected, whatever might have been contemplated, excepting the removal of long accumulated dust, which rendered its appearance gloomy, and defaced its well-executed carvings. Whether in the destruction of the old tower and frontispiece, and the erection of the new one, the architect was governed by his own opinion, or aimed to suit the taste of his employers, it is unnecessary to determine; but if we may credit report, the architect of the The elegant steeple of Bow Church in Cheapside is one of the happiest designs of the same architect. Royal 20 Royal Exchange.-Monument to John Corbet, Esq. Royal Exchange is neither entitled to censure for the removal of the old tower, nor for the demerits in the proportions of the new one. A structure that should not be "mistaken for a church," or, in other words, a novel design, was demanded in the room of one which raised its tall head, indeed, like a "church tower," and was assuredly more elegant than the similar appendages of several adjacent buildings. The design was submitted, approved, and is executed. Let us describe it. A straight entablature, surmounted by a parapet, ornamented with balustrades, rests on the old Corinthian columns; the former covers the entire elevation, but the latter are limited to the side compartments, analogous to the original design. Pedestals have been prepared for the reception of standing figures over the columns; as these figures are not yet executed, it is hoped that they never will be; their absence improves a building already frittered and defaced by busts, flying dragons, and poor insipid groupes of men and women, in pannels," signifying nothing." To the square basement of the tower are attached on each side a short wall, so unsightly and useless, that if they were not erected purposely to accommodate the figures of Mr. "Bubb," we are utterly at a loss to conjecture their utility. These appendages are by some supposed to improve the appearance of the front elevation, but they materially injure the side view of the building; and when it is considered that an agreeable prospect of the former can never be obtained, the propriety of such additions may be justly doubted. These remarks are illustrated by some of our most approved buildings of Roman architecture, and by several of the most admired works of that eminent architect, Sir Christopher Wren. The tower of Christ Church in Oxford remains a monument of his taste and judgment, in choosing the form, and fixing the proportions, of a superstructure for an antient basement of peculiar style and grandeur. The detail of this fabrick will not, it must be confessed, bear a close examination; but its shape, construction, and This name is inscribed in large letters beneath the sculptures alluded to. [Jan. fitness exceed all praise. It rises over the gateway unencumbered by false walls or other futile appendages, unadorned with superfluous carvings, and in a form so simply grand, that it is deservedly an object of universal admiration. The use of false walls and parapets, which are sometimes indispensable, as in St. Paul's Cathedral, should be avoided as much as possible. The clere story, which, in our ecclesiastical architecture, proves so fine an ornament to the external design of the cathedrals and other churches, is hidden from view in St. Paul's, by the side walls being carried to the apex of the roof, and which are finely enriched with all the appropriate ornaments of the composite order. This arrangement, so admirably calculated to conceal the roof, and give effect to the nagnificent dome rising over the centre, is not inconsistent with the rules of Roman architecture, or in opposition to correct taste. It is only in cases where false walls are superfluous, or of very little use (as in the Royal Exchange), that they become objectionable and unsightly. The tower of this building would have appeared more stately without such adjuncts; its prominent defect is want of height; but another defect, certainly not less striking, is the ungraceful outline which the front now presents, compared with the original, which, altho' admitted to have possessed "many architectural beauties, and but few defects," was demolished to give place to one whose elegance and beauty_are somewhat equivocal. T. THE Mr. URBAN, Shrewsbury, Dec. 31. HE insertion in your valuable and highly interesting Magazine of the following addition to the account of Battlefield Church, given in vol. LXII. p. 893, will oblige your constant reader, GEO. MORRIS. A splendid monument to the memory of the late JOHN CORBET, esq. of Sundorne, was erected a few days ago in Battlefield Church, near this town, against the East end of the North wall. The basement, which rests on the floor, is after the model of an antient altar tomb, and is divided into four compartments by small panelled buttresses; within each compartment are two shields under trefoil headed arches, surmounted by small 1822.] John Corbet, Esq.-Bastardy Laws. small panels, similarly ornamented; on these lie the ledger, moulded and charged with roses. From this altartomb rise five panelled buttresses with mouldings, supporting the canopy, which consists of four pointed ogee arches, with trefoil heads, crocketed and crowned with elegant finials, which terminate under the cornice: the buttresses run up between these arches, and each finishes under the cornice with a rich crocketed pinnacle placed angularly with the buttresses, the spandrils being filled with narrow trefoil-headed panels. On the canopy is a rich moulded cornice with roses, &c. surmounted by elaborately carved strawberry leaves resting on reversed trefoil-headed arches pierced through. In the centre of the cornice are the arms of the deceased: Or, two ravens in pale proper, impaling those of his two wives; quarterly, per fesse indented Or and Gules, for Leighton; and Ermine, three fusils in fesse Sable, for Pigott; his crest, an elephant proper, with a tower on his back. At the angles are small octagonal turrets springing from the step, and terminating with a carved cornice and projecting battlements. The ends, from the turrets to the wall of the church, are occupied by small trefoil-headed panels, resting on a moulded plinth, and terminating under a cornice, carved similar to that in front. The interior represents in miniature the aile of a cathedral or cloister with its richly groined and ribbed vault; at each dívision are small archivolts springing from richly carved corbels, and the intersections of the ribs are covered with rich foliated bosses. On the back is the following inscription in a mixture of old English text and Longobardic characters: "Sacred to the memory of John Corbet, esq. of Sundorne, who departed this life the 19th day of May, 1817, aged 65 years. He was in the twenty-first degree of lineal descent from Corbet, a nobleman of Normandy, who accompanied William the First to the conquest of England; and received an ample donation of lands and manors in the county of Salop, during the reign of that Monarch. "in the same vault are deposited the remains of his first wife Emma Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Charlton Leighton, bart. of Leton, who died the 19th day of September, 1797-And of their only son, John Kynaston Corbet, who died the 23d day of April, 1906, aged 15 years. 21 "This Monument is erected by his second wife, Anne, daughter of the Rev. William Pigott, M.A. Rector of Edgmond and Chetwynd, as a tribute of gratitude and af fection to the best of husbands, the remembrance of whose virtues is deeply engraven on her heart." This magnificent memorial was de signed by the Rev. Archdeacon Owen, and most admirably executed by the Messrs. Carline of Shrewsbury, in a beautiful fine grained free-stone from the Grinshill quarries in the neighbourhood; the warm yet mild tinge of which adds greatly to the harmony and elegance of the work: and whether we consider the design, the execution, or the munificence that raised it, it is alike creditable to the individual, the antiquary, and the artist. It is of that era in which the style denominated the florid Gothic prevailed; a period when sculpture and architecture had attained the zenith of splendid ornament, and of elaborate and minute detail, with great precision and care in the finishing. Mr. URBAN, Jan. 5. PAMPHLET upon pamphlet, and volume upon volume, have been published upon the increase of population and poor's rates in this kingdom. Groan upon groan has been uttered by the political economist, when he has reflected upon the early marriages of the poor: but not one of them has discovered, as far as I can learn, that the real cause exists in the Laws. It must be evident to every rational person, that the Bastardy Laws are an absolute encouragement to Fornication, reward it by a bounty, invite perjury, and promise it impunity. What else can be said of a system which kindly informs a young female that if she becomes pregnant, she will either be married to the father, or be totally released from support of the child? Is this, in any construction, punishment of vice? on the contrary, is it not gratification of the natural desire of matrimony common to the sex, by first plunging them in guilt? I am well aware of the necessity of provision being made for unfortunate infants, but England is the only country in which such Laws prevail. I do not profess to say what would be the best mode of altering them. In other countries, Foundling Hospitals are es tablished, 22 Bastardy Lanes.-Ivan, a Russian Tale. tablished, and are certainly better than the present system of corrupting the sex, of teaching them to crawl into matrimony through harlotry. I will put a case, without pleading for its enactment, absolutely in all cases, as perhaps too Draconian. I will suppose that it was established by law, that no woman should be, without trouble at least, permitted to become the wife of a man by whom she had been illicitly pregnant*. The difficulty of seduction would become much greater, and the nation be infinitely benefited; for numberless are the virtues dependent upon the purity of the female character. Women will not easily err, with the prospect only of becoming prostitutes. Laws founded upon manifest folly and mischief, cannot be vindicated. Exoneration of parishes from the expence of supporting the children, and the prevention of infanticide, are the objects sought by the Laws, and both these objects may be secured in a better way. If a single woman was prohibited from marrying a man by whom she had been pregnant, and there was a penalty of 201. for every married man, or batchelor of superior rank, endeavouring to corrupt an inferior, an encouragement would be given to matrimony, and regard established for character, which would be attended with the highest advantages to society. I shall send you, hereafter, some curious cases of Perjury. That these hints may be taken up, discussed, and improved upon, is the hearty desire of Yours, &c. MALFEMINOSOR. IVAN. A Russian Talet. Tascent to its throne of the EmHE kingdom of Russia, until the peror Alexander, has been from the remotest period of its history continually the theatre of civil discord and intestine commotion. From the reign of Alexey Michailovitch, to the accession of its present illustrious ruler, so * This is done now in Divorce Bills, by the Lords, under certain circumstances. The materials of this tragic story were principally derived from Le Clerc's Hist. de Russie Moderne, tome II.-Coxe's Travels. -Life of Catherine II. vol. I.-Mr. Sotheby has written an admirable Tragedy, of which Ivan is the hero. [Jan. many pretenders have arisen to urge their claims to the imperial diadem of that vast empire, that more calamitous events have resulted to Russia from the contentions to which these circumstances have naturally given birth during the last century, than have befallen the princely house of any other nation in Europe in a much longer space of time. Upon the demise of the Empress Anne, in 1740, Ivan Antonovitch, her nephew, then an infant, was proclaimed her successor; and Biren, a man of a fierce and ambitious spirit, regent of the kingdom until the baby sovereign should arrive at an age sufficiently mature to take upon himself the reins of government. If frequent usurpations of the imperial crown had been aimed at, while it circled the brows of those who were capable of defending their right to it, it may easily be imagined that no very considerable period was permitted to elapse without a renewal of those attempts which were, at this juncture, so much more likely to be attended with success. Thirteen months only had rolled over the cradle of the infant Emperor, when a conspiracy broke out which hurled the helpless Ivan from the throne, and raised Elizabeth to the imperial power. The first object of this ambitious woman was the seizure of Ivan, who was accordingly torn from his cradle by a band of barbarian soldiers, and transported to the fortress of Schlusselburg*, situated on a small island where the river Neva issues into the Lake of Ladoga. From this place, accompanied by his mother, the royal infant was soon after conveyed to the citadel of Riga, where they wore away eighteen months of captivity. The monotony their place of exile being so frequently of imprisonment was in some measure alleviated by the circumstance of varied. From Riga they were removed to the fortress of Dunamunde, and situated in the South-eastern extremity subsequently to Orianenburg, a town of European Russia. Hitherto the captivity of the mother of Ivan had been softened and rendered less galling by the presence of her child; but in 1746 the mandate of the Empress Schlussel, in German, signifies a key. This name was given it by Peter the First, as being the key to his new city, Petersburg. separated |