introduction to the first volume he enters on a large field of enquiry; the mode of interment, and construction of monuments, from the earliest ages to that which is now practised in Europe: somewhat of this ground he again goes over in the introduction to the second; and throughout the work produces ample reason for inveighing against the ravages of conquerors; the devastation of false zeal and fanaticism the depredations of ignorance, interest, and false taste; the defacements of the white-washer's brush, and a variety of other circumstances, which, beside the ever-wasting hand of Time, have all contributed to destroy the sepulchral monuments of our ancestors. In this work he professes to have neither the object, the plan, nor the method of an historian.

"Our materials (he says) are different, and my plan adopts only what his excludes; great events, great personages, great characters, good or bad, are all that he brings upon his stage!

"I talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs

And that small portion of the barren earth

That serves as paste and covering to our bones!

;

Mine are subjects rejected by the historian to the end of each reign, among the prodigies that distinguish it; yet is this detail not uninteresting. It is a picture of private mixed with public life, a subject in which my countrymen have been anticipated by their neighbours."

The engravings which accompany it are not only numerous and accurate, but splendid.

In 1794 he published an account of the beautiful missal presented to Henry VI. by the Duchess of Bedford, which Mr. Edwards, bookseller in Pall-mall, purchased at the Duchess of Portland's sale, and still possesses; and has throughout assisted in the copious, well-directed, and accurate History of Leicestershire. T2

Mr.

Mr. Gough's last work, was the "History and Antiquities of Pleshy, in the County of Essex;" London, 1803, 4to. which, though confined to the history of a single spot, forms collectively a mass of information whose value cannot in justice be lowly appreciated.

It is with pleasure we perceive Mr. Gough still active in the cause of ancient literature; and that while he enjoys that independence which he glories in possessing as his inheritance, he continues to employ it in his favourite pursuit. He is in all respects pre-eminently qualified for the labours of the antiquary; and his magnificent work upon sepulchral monuments has already convinced the world that he possesses not only the most indefatigable perseverance, but an ardour which no expence can possibly deter.

EARL OF CARLISLE, K. G.

IT is with no small degree of pleasure, mingled with pride, that we behold some of our present race of nobility cultivating a taste for composition, and devoting a portion of their time to the Muses. It is thus that they mutually receive from, and confer honour on letters, and, like the Earl of Surrey, during the reign of Henry VIII. and Sheffield Duke of Buckingham, in the classic age of Anne, contribute to exalt their own fame, without diminishing that of their country.

The family of the nobleman whose memoirs are here attempted to be detailed, was ennobled towards the middle of the seventeenth century, scon after the close of the civil war, the first patent being dated April 20, 1661, and the first peer called to the upper

house,

house, by the style and title of Baron Dacre, Viscount Howard, of Morpeth. Posterior to the Revolution, a coronet of a higher order was appended to the arms, and if we are to judge from their wealth and alliances, their claims and their pretensions, these will justify any further honour which may be either in the power or the inclination of the Sovereign to bestow.

Frederick Howard, Earl of Carlisle, Viscount Howard of Morpeth, Baron Dacres, and a knight of the most noble order of the garter, was born May 28, 1748. As he was intended for a public life, his lordship was sent early to that famous seminary erected by the "ill-fated Henry,"* where so many of our noble youths are educated. At Eton College he became the contemporary of many men who have attained either high rank or great celebrity; of Hare, whose verses were appended to the school-room, on account of their excellence; of Fox, whom he was fated to admire "ere yet in manhood's bloom," and to differ from at a riper age; and of the Duke of Leinster, with whom he has ever lived in habits of familiarity. It was here too that his lordship first saw, and formed a particular intimacy with, the late Mr. Storer,† the son of an eminent planter in the island of Jamaica. This young gentleman, ingenuous, engaging, and ac

* Eton College was founded by Henry VI. in 1740: "Let softer strains ill-fated Henry mourn,

And palms eternal flourish round his urn."

+ Mr. Storer on his death became the benefactor of the seminary which he had adorned while living, having bequeathed to it his superb collection of books and paintings.

complished, beloved and admired by all his schoolfellows, engaged the attention, and rivetted the friendship of Lord Morpeth (by which title the earl was known during his father's life-time), and they became the Pylades and Orestes of Eton. It was with such companions as these that Lord Carlisle was accustomed to spend his early days, in successive study and recreation; it was along with them he imbibed a taste for the classic page, under the eye of the provost and the tutors, or, descending to humbler occupations, twirled the hoop, navigated the funny, manned the galley, or was borne, at this paradisaical time of life, "naked yet not ashamed," on the bosom of the silvery flood:

"Where dancing sun-beams on the water play'd,

And verdant alders form'd a quiv'ring shade."

Here too, doubtless, he was accustomed at times to
diversify his amusements, and imitate the sportsman,
so admirably described by Pope in his short but beau-
tiful
poem of Windsor Forest :

"In genial spring, beneath the quiv'ring shade,
Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead,
The patient fisher takes his silent stand,
Intent, his angle trembling in his hand :
With looks unmov'd, he hopes the scaly breed,
And eyes the dancing cork, and bending reed.

"Our plenteous streams a various race supply,
The bright-ey'd perch, with fins of Indian dye;
The silver eel, in shining volumes roll'd;
The yellow carp, in scales bedropp'd with gold;
Swift trouts, diversify'd with crimson stains;
And pikes, the tyrants of the wat'ry plains."

After

After the lapse of many years, the writer of this article accidentally beheld his lordship nearly on the same "classic spot," renewing the pastimes of his youth, and stealing a few minutes of riper age from the cares of the world, by throwing a mimic fly, and endeavouring to entice the lusty but cautious trout.

It was here too that he, perhaps, caught the inspiration of poetry, and might have fairly exclaimed:

"First in these fields I try the sylvan strains,

Nor blush to sport on Windsor's blissful plains:
Fair Thames! flow gently from thy sacred spring,
While on thy banks Sicilian Muses sing;
Let vernal airs through trembling osiers play,
And Albion's cliffs resound the rural lay."

Perhaps, also, at this joyous time of life, he did not sing unbid:

"Non injussa cano: te nostra, vare, myricæ,

Te nemus omne canet: nec Phœbo gratior ulla est,
Quam sibi quæ vari præscripsit pagina nomen."

But the time soon arrived when his lordship was destined to leave this retreat of the Muses, and tread the busy haunts of men. Accordingly, after residing the usual time there, he repaired to the continent, and made the grand tour, during which, although he must doubtless have admired the beauties and embellishments both of nature and art, in France as well as in Italy, yet he doubtless found many points of comparison, in which his native country could not be rivalled, for the former was at that period sunk in the apathy of superstition, while the latter languished beneath the horrors of despotism.