description of the Church of Little Maplestead in Essex. In the ninth portion of his work, as well as in the first plate of the tenth, Mr. Britton has exhibited three curious specimens of our antient parish churches. Stewkley, in Buckinghamshire, to which we cannot assign an carlier date than the middle or latter part of the twelfth century; St. John's Church, Devizes, of the reign of Henry the First or Stephen; and St. Peter's Church, Northampton; likewise a • Norman edifice. The remainder of the tenth, with the whole of the eleventh and twelfth parts, are devoted to that beautiful structure, the CHAPEL OF HENRY THE SEVENTH, at Westminster. The Essay toward its History, however, is confined but to a few pages. Holinshed, Mr. Britton observes, is very particular respecting the commencement of Henry's Chapel; but concerning the progress and termination of the work he is silent. The most curious particulars con cerning it, are those which we gain from a few clauses in the Founder's Will in which a variety of provisions for completing the edifice oc 1. Plan of the western end of the south aisle, with an indication of the groining of the roof, stalls, &c. 2. Groining of the east end of the roof. 3. Groining of part of the roof, near the east end. 4. Flying buttress, &c. 5. Interior, looking west, with the tomb, &c. 6. A pendant of the roof. 7. The ground-plan of the chapel, exhibiting at the same time the groining of the roof. 8. Buttress and turret on the south-east angle of the chapel. 9. View and plan of the lower window at the eastern end. 10. Window of upper tier at the eastern end: and the exterior facing above the upper tier of windows. 11. The great metal gates of entrance. 12. Elevation of the eastern end. plan. 16. Elevation of N. side of the porch. 17. Elevation, &c. of part of south side, with the screens restored. 18. Interior view of a window, &c. in the S. aisle. 19. View in the north aisle. In the letter-press of the thirteenth part, the account of the monuments in the chapel, of which a page or two were given in the twelfth portion, is continued: followed by details and references in explanation of the different plates. The engravings which accompany the thirteenth part are of old man sions. Of these, the old house at Islington was hardly worth engraving. The best are of Audley End, Holland House, and Compton Winyate in Warwickshire. ART. VII. Architectural Reliques; or the Present State of the most celebrated Remains of Ancient British Architecture and Sculpture. By GEORGE COOPER, Architect. Part I. Folio. INFERIOR to the "Architectural Antiquities," already mentioned, though highly creditable to the artist, is the first part of the work before us: containing views and parts, accompanied by an historical description of the cathedral church of Llandaff. The few facts which are here recorded of its history have been principally taken from the well known work of Brown Willis. The views are of the west front, the interior of the ruin, and the southern entrance, engraved in aquatinta. The remaining plates, five in number, which are etched, represent sculptured heads, ornaments and capitals. ART. VIII. Views in Shropshire. Folio. By W. PEARSON. the circumference of the walls took u a SO little has been hitherto done from which the modern name Wroxeter for the illustration of Shropshire, may be derived. that we are certain Mr. Pearson's views will be deemed an acceptable present to the topographer. They are partly etched, and partly in the chalk style, though in some cases, perhaps, with less attention to the minute ornaments of architecture than could have been wished. The most beautiful specimens are given in the ruins of Hales Owen Abbey, the Hanging Tower at Bridgenorth, Wenlock Abbey, Bildewas Abbey, the Roman wall at Wroxeter, the interior of Acton Burnell Castle, and the Porch of St. Mary's Church at Shrewsbury. The descriptions annexed to the different views appear to have been compiled with care. The following is annexed to the view of the Roman Wall. "This curious remain of antiquity is Bear the London road, about five miles from Shrewsbury, and is generally sup posed to have been URICONIUM, a city of the Cornavii, the ancient inhabitants of these parts. It was also called Wrekencester, probably from the adjacent hill, ART. IX. The History and Antiquities NICHOLS, F. S. A. Edinb. and Perth. Hundred. OUR opinion of the general conduct of this useful work has been already given in a former volume. We have now little more to do than to notice its continuance. It is with sad regret, however, we The city was situated upon the confluence of the rivers Severn and Tern p about three miles, and were built upon strong pebbly gravel, they were about thre yards thick, with a deep trench on the outside. There is nothing now remaining but the broken wall represented in the an nexed print, which is about twenty feet high, and a hundred feet in length, made of hewn stone; at equal distances are seven rows of brick work, arched within after the manner of the Britons. It is in vain to conjecture what kind of place this was under the Romans; that it was decoins often found here, are likewise a proof stroyed by fire scems evident: the Roman of its antiquity. The graves that have been met with are wide and deep; the body was inclosed in red clay, and the graves faced on the sides with slates, and then covered with stones. Several urns have been discovered, three or four feet below the surface; ako tessellated pave ments, and stones containing Roman inthe library of the free-schools in Shrews scriptions, two of which are preserved in bury, and one is placed against the vicarage-house at Wroxeter, for the inspec tion of the curious." of the County of Leicester. By Jonn Vol. IV. Part I. containing Guthlaxton learn that the number of copies of the future part must be limited, because one hundred and twenty only of the present volume were all that escaped the fire which levelled the author's printing othice to the ground. The places which strike us as most important on the score of curious information in this portion of the History of Leicestershire, are Knaptoft, Lutterworth, and Stanford; followed, at the close, by the Annals of Leicester, Among the fugitive biography which it contains, we notice a curious memoir of the Life of Duke, whose name has been transmitted to posterity by Johnson, among those of the British Poets: another of Dr. Wells; who wrote on the geography of the Old and New Testament: a third of Bishop Watson; and a still more elaborate Life of the celebrated Wicliffe. We have also a detached "History of the Family of the Fieldings;" by Nathaniel, the father of HumphreyWenley In the account of Blaby the remarkable history of Mr. Edward Stokes is detailed, who, though blind from the age of nine years, was not only admitted into holy orders, but obtained in succession two good livings. He used to hunt briskly, we are told; at which time a person always accompanied him, and when a leap was to be taken, rang a bell. Among the plates we have a good portrait of Wicliffe; and some very curious representations of the prin cipal events in St. Guthlac's life, from an ancient roll in the British Museum, from whom the Hundred received its denomination. In a future volume of our review we hope to congratulate Mr. Nichols on the completion of his work, which in point of extent and variety of information, historical matter, and original documents, is certainly exceeded by no publication of its kind. CHAPTER V. HISTORY AND POLITICS. erf ART. 1. The History of Greece. By WILLIAM MITFORD, Esq. 4to. Vol: 4. pp. 647. NOTWITHSTANDING the habitual reverence with which the ages of Greek and Roman antiquity are regarded by us, the real merit of the ancient authors, and the early prepossession which we are led to form in their favour, there are various circumstances which may naturally tend, in no inconsiderable degree, to discourage a writer from selecting the transactions of those distant times as the theme of historical composition. The subject, though perhaps in reality little understood, has an appearance of triteness. The names of Miltiades and Themistocies, of Hannibal and Scipio, of Cicero and Cæsar, have been familiar to our ears from the earliest period of recollection; and it seems as if little new light could be thrown on the transactions of personages, at once so remote and so celebrated. On the mention of their names, we are apt to feel somewhat of the impatience of the poet, and exclaim "Miserum dirus caput Hannibal implet, Quicquid id est de quo deliberat, an petat urbem A Cannis, an post nimbos et fulmina cautus, Circumagat madidas a tempestate cohortes." The negligence of the successive authors, who have treated the principal events of ancient history, and who have commonly been content in a great degree to copy their predecessors, leaving on the minds of their readers little impression of personal research or interest, has also contributed in many instances It to render the perusal of their works less attractive than the nature of the subject in itself admits. Some have even been disposed to deny the utility of any minute acquaintance with the events of distant ages. is beyond the power and opportunities, they maintain, of any but professed students to enter with that minute attention which can alone render the study of history very serviceable, into the investigation of the long series of historical memorials, which the lapse of time has. accumulated. To the general reader, the history of his own country, and other countries connected with his own, by community of interests, proximity of situation, and similarity of manners, must be the most important. To the statesman, a train of facts, related by ancient authors with little illustration from the principles of political science, founded in a system of manners widely different from our own, and which exercise no perceptible influence on the interests of the present age, can afford few important lesSuch sons of practical wisdom. reasoners would limit the period of useful history, to the compass of a few centuries preceding our own time, when Europe began to assume its present system of power and manners, and those interests were developed, which form the springs of modern policy. These arguments are, however, rather plausible than just. The apparent triteness of ancient history chiefly results from the negligent manner in which it has been treated. If the writer gives himself the trouble of careful examination into the facts which he records, abun dant opportunities of new representation or original observation will probably occur; the interest which rbwill himself naturally feel in his subject, he will find the art of communicating to his leaders, nor will it be weakened by the conside ration of the length of the intervening period.-Europe has likewise proceeded by a regular progress from the rudeness of primitive society, to its present state of high and refined civilization. The knowledge is imperfect and unsatisfactory, which stops at any paricular link of the chain. It is remarked, if we rightly recollect, by a sagacious observer, that the imperfection of political science is, in a considerable degree, to be ascribed to the want of sufficient data. Few perhaps of the possible experiments on the nature of the human race, have yet taken place. To arrive at general conclusions it is necessary to examine men under every form of social connection, which we can ascertain to have existed. which it is indebted to the literary monuments of Greece, those κτηματα zu, which the genius of her writers has bequeathed to posterity. Greece is in fact the parent of much of whatis most valuable and admirable in modern society, of arts, learning, and refinement of manners. Her social institutions, though doubtless inferior to our own, present many opportunities of useful and interesting speculation to the political philosopher,— In Athens we have the first opportunity of witnessing the union of freedom and civilization, and the beneficial influence of their conjunction on the improvement of mankind. Sparta presents the example of a political fabric, the most singular, and apparently the most contrary to the common principles of human action, of all that have hitherto existed; a system which, if less attested by indisputabe evidence, would scarcely seem less wild and less reducible to practice than the institutions of Utopia itself. Nor is the durability of its laws and spirit less surprizing, than the total subserviency of private to public feeling, in which they were founded. Its history, in short, goes further to prove the uncontrouled empire of circumstances over the human mind, than any other recorded facts. Independently of these considerations, the history of Greece has peculiar claims to notice, and presents indeed a kind of phenomenon in human affairs.--A country which now forms little more than a province of a semi-barbarous empire, subdivided also into a number of independent states, frequently enga,ed in mutual hostilities, has acquired a fame in arts and arms, in literature and policy, which time has not been able to impair. The mighty Persian monarchy, which included almost the half of civilized Asia, has, like the Grecian States, long been dissolved: yet the transactions of the latter continue to be indelibly recorded, and have impressed a strong character on succeeding ages; while the former has scarcely left behind it any memo. rls of credibility, but those for For some of the most interesting periods of Greek history, we are fortunate in possessing contemporary materials, in the works of his torians and orators, of the highest authenticity and importance. Even for the periods in which original authorities are deficient, we are enabled to have recourse to writers in whose power these authorities were placed, and who have employed them in the composition of his torical writings still extant, compiled, it must be confessed, with different degrees of fidelity and judgment. Such is the subject which Mr. |