suspended; a deadly chilling stopped the circulation of his blood: without having fainted, and in an erect posture, he appeared annihilated. On a table, surrounded by large sable wax tapers, lay a coffin, covered by a black cloth reaching the ground.

When recovering from this stupor, the dread of the worst that could betide him quickened his heart to every racking sensation.→ Twice, urged by despair, he attempted to lift up the pall, and to discover by the plate on the coffin, whether his Adelaide-twice the dread of an horrid certainty withheld his arm. During this excruciating suspence, he again heard steps ascending the stairs: wanting resolution to make enquiries, he with precipitation withdrew behind a curtain suspended in a corner of the apartment.

A young lady of the most elegant form, and arrayed in deep mourning, now entered, eagerly approached the coffin, then turning to her female attendants, by a motion of her hand bade them withdraw.

Oh, Edmund! what were the ecstasies of thy heart, how enviable thy feelings when so suddenly revived from the dread of losing for ever thy richest treasure, in the beautiful mourner thou beheldest thine.-But, hush! she speaks!

"Precious remains of an ever-beloved parent," softly breathed Adelaide, mournfully viewing the coffin, let me take one last look, let me behold once more those features whose image will ever live in my heart."

As she spoke, she slowly removed a part of the pall, lifted up the lid, and in silent sorrow gazed on the countenance of her departed aunt. Then recollecting her own forlorn situation, she continued, her eyes swimming in tears:

"O thou! from whom I experienced all the tenderness of a mother, who didst rear and protect my infancy, who guidedst my steps in the dawn of unfolding reason, in whose bosom shall thy friendless Adelaide now find repose? Under whose wing can she shelter from the snares of the perfidious? Alas! my other friends were gone; my last, my best friend remained; but now from the orphan girl her spirit is likewise fled."

She could say no more, but kneeling by the coffin, she reclined her head on the edge of the table. Her tears, her sobs, bespoke the abundance of her grief.

"No!" said the deeply affected Edmund, kneeling by her, and taking her hand-" No! thine Edmund, at least, lives for thee."

He was proceeding; but the terrified, amazed Adelaide shrunk from his touch, uttered a piercing shriek, and sunk on the ground.

Her lover, astonished at her action, and excessively alarmed, hastened to afford her all possible relief. He had already placed her on the nearest chair, when he felt himself touched by a kind of wand, and as he turned round, a deep-toned voice awfully pronounced the portentous word-FORBEAR!

Edmund then beheld a tall figure, completely clad in a loose black gown that swept the ground. The face of the object was concealed by a veil of the same colour reaching his girdle.

"Who art thou?-Whence comest thou?--Why this disguise

"FORBEAR! I CHARGE THEE, FORBEAR!"

reply.

was the awful To thine admonition, in that concealing and treacherous garb, I shall not attend. But, by Heaven! I'll know who thou art!" At the same time, whilst his left arm still supported the fainting maid, by a sudden spring with his right, he tore off the veil ;-the veil that, to his amazement and horror, had concealed the fleshless, worm-eaten head of a skeleton, whose eyes alone rolled alive in their hollow sockets.'

This story of the death's head represented by a mask, like the other machinery of the plot, has been already exhibited in more than one publication.

Fer. ART. VI. Archæologia; or, Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, Vol. XIJ. XIX.

[Article concluded from our last Review, p. 419.]

THE HE eighteenth Number of this volume contains an account of Flints discovered at Hoxne in Suffolk; communicated by John Frere, Esq. This gentleman thinks that the substances in question are evidently weapons of war, fabricated and used by a people who had not the use of metals. They lay in great numbers at the depth of about twelve feet in a stratified. soil, which was dug into for the purpose of raising clay for bricks.-The manner in which they lie would lead to the persuasion that it was a place of their manufacture, and not of their accidental deposit; and 'the numbers of them were so great, that the man who carried on the brick-work, before he was aware of their being objects of curiosity, had emptied baskets full of them into the ruts of the adjoining road.'

Antiquities from St. Domingo, described by Thomas Rider, Esq. consist of images and beads, taken out of a cave, which few negroes had courage sufficient to enter.-Stone-pillars, crosses, and crucifixes, form the subject of the next article, presented by T. Astle, Esq. Respecting the first, it is well known that their use is of very high antiquity; and it is properly observed by Mr. Astle that some, who had embraced Christianity, still retained the habit of resorting to these pagan. erections, for the purpose of worship; on which account, the figure of the cross was engraven on several of them, which was considered as removing them from the service of the devil. This writer also remarks that stones which had been erected in the times of paganism obtained the name of crosses, although they had not any resemblance of Christ's crucifixion cut on them.' In his farther account, he appears somewhat inclined to favour the use of crucifixes, and the sign of the cross: but,

when

r

when the ignorance and superstition attending the practice is considered, and the degeneracy which it has occasioned from the plain, simple, but most valuable truth of the gospel, we should be cautious in the recommendation of this kind of observances.

In our Review for July last (p. 238.) we took notice of a letter from Charles Townley, Esq. to the Rev. John Brand, giving an account of antiquities discovered at Ribchester. The Helmet and Mask, which are there particularly considered, were thought not to belong to armour made for war, but to that lighter species which was formerly executed merely for the purpose of processions; and, in Mr. Townley's letter, they were with some apparent probability suspected to have been constructed in honour of Isis, as the Magna Mater, and to have been appendants in Roman camps. The Rev. Stephen Weston, in a letter to the President of this Society, inserted in the present volume, forms a different conjecture: he imagines that the head-piece, though found in the same heap of sand, does not belong to the vizor, or mask, which was itself antique when the cap or petasus was fitted to it. This covering, indeed, (adds Mr. W.) is totally unworthy of its place, being evidently of another age, somewhere between Severus and Constantius Chlorus; and its position here is like that of an Austin Friar on the Maison Carrée, or the hat of Harlequin on the head of Augustus.' The helmet, therefore, he discards, but he considers the mask as of the best Roman workmanship on the Greek model, and of the time of the Antonines. He supposes it to have been used at some festival, when the rites and orgies of the divinity represented by it were celebrated?' which divinity he concludes to have been Bacchus. He speaks again of its exquisite workmanship, in Corinthian brass, and farther illustrates it by two antique coins, one of which belonged to Dr. Hunter's collection;-of each, drawings are here exhibited.

Elliot Arthy, Esq. presented to the Society a small Piece of Manuscript called a Griggiry by the Mandingos, who inhabit a part of Africa situated about one hundred miles to the Northward of the British colony at Sierra Leone. These Griggities are inclosed in little leathern cases, to which thongs are fixed, and thus they are hung and constantly worn around the neck or the waist. A Mandingo possessing one of them conceives himself secure from all harm whatever. This relation appears not in the least incredible, as we find similar instances of superstition in all parts of the world; and even among Christians, who ought to have been more enlightened.

Dr.

Dr. Russel, we are informed, says that the Griggiry is writ ten in the Arabic hand used in Barbary, and contains the name of God frequently repeated, with the addition of some unintelligible characters. There are, it is asserted, certain persons among this ignorant people, as in other places, who have learned to take advantage of the general credulity; they are called Griggirymen, are regarded with reverence, and obtain riches and fame from these stupid talismans, so customary among the Arabians; with whom, though so far distant, the Mandingos, it seems, have frequent intercourse. None of their charms, however, can secure them from the horrors of English and Christian slavery!

We are now introduced again to the company of Mons. De La Rue, who proceeds in his dissertation on the lives and works of Anglo-Norman poets of the thirteenth century. The first here introduced is Stephen of Langton, an Englishman by birth, and Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1207. It may rather surprise the reader that the first proof of this Prelate's poetical talents is drawn from his sermons; in one of which, relative to the Holy Virgin, is a stanza of a song, which seems (says this writer) dictated by the Graces, and if found in any other situation, would appear to form a compliment delicately made to some Beauty. A theological drama, in which Truth, Justice, Mercy, and Peace, debate concerning the fate of Adam after the fall, is another of his productions; and a third is a canticle on the passion of Jesus Christ. Chardry, a poet of the same period, exercised his genius on what were called subjects of devotion: but he made it very plain that he despised them :-he might, perhaps, have good sense and truth sufficient to rise above the folly and imposition of the day the fable of the Seven Sleepers was one of the topics which employed his pen. William of Waddington also, though apparently superstitious himself, freely censures the miracles, the nonsense, or theatrical representations, relative to the Scriptures and the martyrs for which there appears to have been so prevalent a taste. Robert Grosse-Tete, Bishop of Lincoln, (who may be supposed to be pretty well known to our readers) is another in this list. In that age of ignorance, stupidity, and priestly dominion, he may well be regarded as a man of learning; that he was a poet is not, perhaps, so generally thought; however, some remains of this kind are here mentioned; such as, the sin of the first man and his restoration, otherwise intitled Le Roman des Romans. At that time they called every thing Roman that was written in the language of romance, and from the importance of the subject treated in this work, it is stated Roman des Romans. It shews,

(we

*

(we are told,) the imagination and facility of the author.' The most entertaining part of this article consists of an account of the Supplement to Robert Wace's Brut of England by an anonymous writer. There is somewhat ingenious and diverting in the method which the wise men of England and Normandy are said to have employed, in order that they might return an answer, clear and decided, to the question proposed by William the First, concerning the future destiny of his children. Denis Pyramus finishes the list: he was a courtier, highly acceptable to Henry III. and his barons: he was also an epicure, and acknowleges that his muse was libertine: in his old age, however, he quitted the lute of Anacreon, and his penitential muse would sing on religious subjects alone: of these compositions, two remain, in French verse. He is here described as a man of a sure and enlightened taste, of a sound and critical judgment,' &c.

The article occurring next has some connection with the foregoing, and may be received as a matter of curiosity: A short chronological Account of the Religious Establishments, made by the English Catholics on the Continent of Europe, by the Abbé Mann. According to this detail, the whole amount, since the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, is upwards of forty; and of all this number, we are informed, there now remain only the three colleges of secular clergy at Rome, Valladolid, and Lisbon, the Benedictine abbey of Lamspring in Germany, and the Nuns of Lisbon and Munich. We cannot regret this circumstance. Friends as we are to liberty, and much as we wish that persons of all opinions should not only be exempt from oppression, but be treated with humanity and kindness, we cannot mourn when the sources of superstitious bigotry and cruelty are weakened, or destroyed; though we may lament the manner in which this has been sometimes effected. The Abbé seems to suppose that a time may come, when a short account of this small part of the British nation may be found interesting.

Some Extracts from the Parish-Register of St. Bennett's, St. Paul's Wharf, London, are presented by the Rev. Mark Noble. By these it appears that, from about the year 1623 to 1654, two noblemen of high rank resided in this small parish, and in the heart of the city. From entries relative to the plague, we learn that a few persons died in the years before and after that of 1665, which is rendered so memorable by that dreadful visitation; yet of this year no notice is taken: the reason of which, Mr. Noble imagines to be that the burial ground is * See M. R. vol. xxiv. N. S. p. 300. D

REV. JAN. 1802.