The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, for the Year ...

Embellished with a Plate of the Effigy of JUDGE GLANVILE at TAVISTOCK, a MONU-
MENTAL STONE discovered at the church of St. NICHOLAS, NEWCASTLE-UPON-
TYNE, a View of the TOWER of HADLEY CHURCH, HERTFORDSHIRE, &c.

MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.

In answer to the inquiry in our May Number, p. 450, we have received several reminiscences of Lady Mary Coke. She resided in the house at the corner of Berkeley Square, with one front in Mount Street, now occupied by the Earl of Abergavenny, and latterly at Chiswick (not Chelsea), in a house called Morton Hall, since pulled down by the Duke of Devonshire. There she died, and her body was buried in the vault of her father John Duke of Argyll, in Westminster Abbey. It is said she enjoyed a jointure of 4,000l. per annum on the Holkham estate. She was a tall and haughty dame, and her eccentricities were notorious. She was followed, whether in her carriage or on horseback, by a train of servants and dogs, and was always dressed in an extraordinary way, as were also her

servants.

I. I. believes the Lloyd "mentioned in William Taylor's Life (see May, p. 450) was not Mr. Charles Lloyd, the intimate friend of the Lake poets, the Coleridge and Southey, Lloyd and Lamb, and Co." of the Antijacobins, but the Rev. Dr. Lloyd, a dissenting minister, who married a sister of the late Sir James Smith, and with whom Southey would very naturally fall in, in his visit amongst the Dissenters at Yarmouth to his friend Burnett.

R. D. says there are two errors in T. P.'s "List of Contributors to the Quarterly Review," in our last number. In vol. xxii. 1820, Art. 5, p. 400, he says, that Mr. Croker was the author of the article on "Spence's Anecdotes." This article was the origin of the famous Pope controversy, and was attributed at the time to several eminent writers by the Anti-Papist party. It was not by Mr. Croker, but by Mr. D'Israeli. In vol. xxxii, Art. 6, p. 152, he says, that the one on "Dibdin's Library Companion" was written by Mr. D'Israeli. Mr. D'Israeli was certainly not the author of this article.

In answer to the inquiry of C. N. (p. 562,)"What has become of Dr. Tredway Nash's MSS., from which was compiled his History of Worcestershire; and if there are any continuations of the collateral branches in his own pedigree subjoined to that work," MR. JABEZ ALLIES informs us, on the authority of Mr. Eaton of Worcester, that Mr. Ross and Mr. Hurd made some corrections and additions to his History, which Mr. Eaton has, including additions to the Doctor's pedigree. His library, manuscripts, and plates were packed up by Mr. Eaton and sent to Eastnor Castle, Lord Somers having married the Doctor's only daughter. An account of his death was inserted in the Gent. Mag. written by Mr. P

and particulars of him and his family are given in Chambers's Biographical Illustrations of the county. Mr. Ross was the engraver of the plates in the History, and also of those in the edition of Hudibras published by Dr. Nash, with notes. Mr. Hurd was the brother of the Bishop of Worcester.

To Correspondents versed in Welsh Genealogies. Elizabeth Fiennes, daughter of Sir William Fiennes, (who was summoned to Parliament 29th Hen. VI. and slain at the battle of Barnet, 10th Edw. IV. 1471,) married Sir William Griffith of North Wales, knight. Can any genealogical Correspondent identify this Sir William Griffith, or state what family of Griffith now existing is descended from him? Many Welsh pedigrees give the descendants of Sir William Griffith, Chamberlain of North Wales, but none of them give him any such wife as Elizabeth Fiennes.

J. P. observes that PLANTAGENET, in his interrogatories as to Cæsar's landing, &c. p. 602, of your last volume, is a little in error as to the length of the Roman mile. He will see the mistake, as undoubtedly it has arisen from confounding the number of feet in its termination with the yards. It should be 1611 yards and two-thirds, or 4835 feet, not 1635 yards. This is according to the tables, so that 11 English miles exceed 12 Roman ones by only 20 yards. In the Commentary on the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, (edit. 1809,) there is an account of some attempts to ascertain the length of the Roman mile, by actual admeasurements, which all vary, but from which is deduced an average of 1593 yards, a result that should not be relied on.

A. K. wishes for reference to any source of information respecting the genealogy or affinity of John Smith, Esq. Barrister-atLaw, who had considerable estates in the counties of Hereford and Brecon. He founded almshouses at Peterchurch, and left charities for the parishes of EatonBishop, Clifford, Kingston, &c. in Herefordshire, (see Report of Charity Commissioners, XXXII. part 2, p. 268.) His will dated 1722 mentions his cousin "Moor Green," whose descendants have to this time continued to be the owners of his estate at Eaton-Bishop, and of his mansion there, called "Cagebrook." The charities were to be disposed of at the discretion of his trustees, and the person who should have the freehold of the house in which he lived at Eaton Bishop.

ERRATA. P. 35. The portrait is one of Madame de Sevigné, not of Mons. de Sevigné. P. 203. William Adrian Lord Inverurie was killed while hunting, December, 1843, (not early in the present year.) Catharine is still living. Lady Isabella

THE

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

The Poetical Works of John Skelton, with Notes, &c. By Rev. Alexander Dyce. 2 Vols.

IN the whole catalogue of English poets, there was not one whose works called more loudly for an editor than Skelton, nor could they have fallen into abler or more careful hands ;*-almost all the original editions of Skelton's pieces have perished: the black-letter edition of Marshe (1568) is not only very imperfect and incorrect, but exceedingly scarce; and the later edition by Mr. Bowle (1738) is really worthless. Skelton's productions indeed had become so entirely one of the "Curiosities of Literature," that Mr. Dyce says the power of giving a complete edition of them depended entirely on the liberality of the late Mr. Heber, "for his library contained some poems by Skelton, of which copies were not elsewhere to be found." If Skelton's poetical powers had been of a much lower kind than they were, his works would have been well worth collecting, for their historical remembrances and personal anecdotes ; for records of manners and customs, for verbal expressions, and for the original, or certainly singular, metre in which they are conveyed. But we think much more highly of his powers; the wit that is encircled by his buffoonery is broad and coarse, but it is genuine and effective: and when he chooses, instead of running along the ground, scattering as he goes his wild licentious satire, to rise on his wings, we can see that he would have equalled or perhaps surpassed many a poet of greater pretensions in subjects of a more elevated nature, and admitting more poetical decoration. Mr. Dyce says, the Bowge of Courte is an allegorical poem of considerable invention, in which a series of characters is introduced, delineated with a boldness and discrimination which no preceding poet had displayed since the days of Chaucer, and which none of his contemporaries with the exception of Dunbar, were able to attain: and he says, in " Phyllyp Sparowe," he exhibits such fertility and delicacy of fancy, such graceful sportiveness, and such ease of expression, that it might well be characterised by Coleridge "as an exquisite and original poem ;" and in The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng, he observes that, if few compositions have more coarseness or extravagance, there are few which have greater animation or a richer humour."

Mr. Dyce has not only made his edition of the Works of Skelton

* Mr. Southey says, "An editor who should be competent to the task, could not more worthily employ himself than by giving a good and complete edition of his [Skelton's] works; the power, the strangeness, the volubility of his language, the audacity of his satire, and the perfect originality of his manner, made Skelton one of the most extraordinary writers of any age or country." See Quarterly Rev. No. xxii. p. 485. We may refer the reader who wishes to see what other critics have said of Skelton to Warton's Hist. of Engl. Poetry, (see Index,) Ellis's Specimens, vol. ii. p. 5, &c. and D'Israeli's Amenities of Literature, vol. ii. p. 69, &c.-ED.

more complete than others, by the insertion of additional pieces, but far more correct, as well by careful collation as by judicious conjecture. He has illustrated the text with a valuable body of notes, the usefulness of which extends beyond the pages of the author they are intended to illustrate. He has added also two very curious poems written in Skelton's manner, and probably soon after his time, called the "Ymage of Ypocrisy," and the "Vox Populi ;" the former attacking the corruptions of the Church, and the second exhibiting the complaints of the commons and the oppression of the poor, a subject also touched upon in Roy's Satire, as well as in Latimer's Sermons. We shall now give a short abridgment of the poet's life, and such specimens from the different poems as may awaken curiosity to a larger acquaintance with the whole.

At what time Skelton became rector of Diss, in Norfolk, is not known; he resided there in 1504, and 1511, and 1513, and at his death was at least nominally the rector. "We are told that for keeping, under the title of concubine, a woman whom he had secretly married, Skelton was called to account, and suspended from his ministerial functions by his diocesan, at the instigation of the Dominican friars." It is said that he had several children, and that on his death-bed he declared that he conscientiously regarded her as his wife; but that he chose, out of his weakness, rather to confess concubinage than, what was then more criminal in an ecclesiastic, marriage. Delafield, in his MS. Collections, says it was in return for his being married, an equal crime in the ecclesiastics in those days, that Bishop Nykke suspended him; and Tanner says, "Skelton took sanctuary in Westminster, propter quod uxorem habuit." thony a Wood mentions that Skelton in the pulpit at Diss was more fit for the stage than the pew; and Mr. Dyce says, "It is at least certain that anecdotes of the irregularity of his life, of his buffoonery as preacher, were current long after his decease, and gave rise to that tissue of extravagant figments, which was entitled the Merie Tales of Skelton.''

The poems of Skelton against Wolsey are not the light and sportive sallies of the satirist playing with his subject, pleased with the wit of his invention, and the keenness of his invective, but it is the deadly language of hatred, the indignant anger of a determined enemy, merciless in his wrath, and apparently revenging some gross insult or injury received. And yet it appears that Skelton once enjoyed Wolsey's patronage, and expected preferment from his influence. The fierceness of his later indignation can only be paralleled by the grossness of his former adulation, of which Mr. Dyce has afforded sufficient specimens; Mr. Dyce thinks the "provocation must have been extraordinary which transformed the humble client into his dearest foe;'" but the continued neglect of his patron, till Skelton felt that advancement was hopeless, and the door of preferment was decidedly shut against him, was perhaps sufficient. The wasp that is prevented coming to the honey-pot will turn round and sting. From the awakened vengeance of the Cardinal, Skelton took sanctuary at Westminster, where he was received and protected by the Abbot Islip, and in this asylum he appears to have remained till his death, in June 1529. He was buried in the chancel of St. Margaret's church, and the following inscription placed on his grave:

Joannes Skeltonus, vates Pierius, hic situs est.

John Skelton is generally said to have been descended from the Skeltons of Cumberland, but Mr. Dyce says there is some reason to be

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