fate of his religion, and his strong bias in favor of every thing that is Roman Catholic. He even entertains hopes of the success of the impossible project of uniting the English and Roman churches. Very many of his publications have related to these subjects; and his interest in the Catholic question appears to have carried him so frequently to the gallery of the House of Commons. Of the Letter on Ancient and Modern Music, it is unnecessary to say any thing; it will be interesting only to the initiated; and on this subject even a reviewer may be permitted to acknowledge profound ignorance. Tales of a Traveller, Parts III. and IV. By Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Author of "The Sketch Book," "Bracebridge Hall," «Knickerbocker's New York," &c. Philadelphia. 1824. 8vo. rated description of it, or, at least, to dwell before he visited the scenes described; for on it with an undue degree of fondness. A he has shown a remarkable insensibility to little travel is as dangerous as a little learn their most striking and interesting characing; and a deeper draught of it is as effica- teristics. We know how soon the newcious in sobering down the intoxication of ness of travelling wears away, and the exthe first taste. If Mr Irving had seen citement of the imagination gives place to France, Italy, and Switzerland, before writ-weariness and almost to disgust. Besides, ing about England, there would not have what is it gives fervor to the fancy, and inappeared in these writings, as we think terest to the observations of a traveller? It there now does, a marked inferiority to his is, that he is a stranger and a sojourner; other productions. He would not have that all around him is new and foreign, and twaddled about Roscoe and the green fields that he connects all this with the recollecand Christmas holydays of England, in a tions and feelings of a dear and distant style so much below that of the legends and home. But there is nothing of all this in descriptions of the New Netherlands. We the practised traveller; his observations do not mean that England is not highly are without enthusiasm or association. One worthy of the attention of the traveller in who travels to furnish his imagination with search of the interesting and beautiful, materials for its creative powers, should whether he chooses to observe the scenery travel fast, and not long. He should not or the people, as well as the country of all stay in any place until the homeliness of reothers the most advanced in the arts of life.ality breaks through the poetical mist that Perhaps it is only because it is so much hangs so beautifully round a strange land, in many points like our own, that it is not, nor continue his wanderings long enough On the whole, we are not satisfied with on the whole, entitled to a decided prefer- to familiarize his mind to strangeness. He these Tales. Some of them, indeed, are ence to every other in the eyes of the Amer- should do just the reverse of what might be quite respectable as productions of a light ican traveller. But, whatever be the en- recommended as the best mode of travelkind of literature; but, some how or other,' thusiasm with which the sea-sick stranger ling for information; for, as soon as he can as Dolph Heyliger says, the public have touches the shore of England, where he finds find his way well about a city, it is time for been led to expect better things as the re- himself for the first time in a foreign land; him to be gone to another; and whenever sult of Mr Irving's travels. It was some- a land of interesting recollections, and un- he begins to collect facts, it is high time for time since announced, that he was on the equalled verdure and beauty-let him ob-him to go home. No doubt, many of our continent, collecting materials for a new serve it well indeed, and treasure up the readers would think such travelling a clear series of publications, and every body ex- feelings it excites, for they can never be waste of time and money; but all have not pected to be delighted with such tales as excited again; but let him restrain the ex- the same tastes, nor the same paths of life; he could pick up, or invent, among scenes pression of his enthusiasm until he has and what would be idleness and trifling in of which every traveller reports new won- passed on to still stranger lands, where the some, is solid improvement to others. If ders, and which seem to increase in inter- modes of life seem to have had a distinct imagination was not given us in vain, we est by the lapse of every year. We do not origin, whose antiquities are of a higher have as good a right to devote ourselves to charge Mr Irving with having spread this class, and where, above all, a foreign lan- the cultivation of that faculty as of any expectation; for we are sure that he must guage throws a new hue over the whole other; and the feelings and images brought have been annoyed by being thus forestall- picture of man, and gives a new character from Europe by one traveller, may be as ed by the imaginations of his readers, and to all his thoughts and feelings. He will valuable, at least to himself, as the facts prevented from coming out before them know better how to speak of England accumulated by another. with the advantage of surprise. He knows without insensibility, and yet without exthat his name is established, at least for the travagance. He will then remember, present, and that he needs not the aid of perhaps as vividly as ever, the delight such annunciations to excite the public in- with which he first trod her shores; and terest. And he must know too, that it is will often, at least if he saw it under as faprejudicial to a popular author to have it vorable circumstances as we did, recur to known what he is about long before he ap- it as to a fairy tale of his childhood. But pears in print; unless, like the author of he will not find that his deepest or most Waverley, he can open to his readers a deep-valuable impressions were made there; he er source of interest by combining the value of history with the pleasure of fiction. will find that he has learned more of man We have said that Mr Irving appears to be insensible to the interesting characteristics of the countries through which he has passed. We mean to apply the remark particularly to Italy; for we confess we should be at a loss to point out many good subjects for him in France; and should be unwilling to see him deeply interested in so unpoetical a people as the French. But here is a whole Number about Italy, the land of all that is most noble in art, most magnifiNor would we be understood to suppose cent in ruins, most sublime and interesting that these tales are really the principal in history, and most picturesque in scenery, fruits of Mr Irving's travels, or that to coland in the modes of actual life. And what lect materials for them was his main object. has Mr Irving given us of all these? A We have no doubt that he had other, and rareeshow of postillions in jack-boots, much higher views; and if these publicastout English gentlemen, vulgar English tions do no more than defray the expenses These are our own notions of the matter, women, a talkative landlord, ferocious robof his journey, the time will not have been and derived from our own experience; but bers, and a coquetish Signora,-but little of lost on his reflecting mind and feeling we confess we do not find them confirmed as scenery, and not one word of art, ruins, or reheart. The public will receive the benefit much as we could wish by any superior ex- collections. We begin at Terracina and end of it in his future writings more than in cellence in Mr Irving's tales of the conti-at Fondi, two of the most miserable villages these; for the general effect of travel on nent. We must except them from our in Italy, separated by a poste and a half of the taste and imagination, is of more im- remark on the inferiority of his English wild shore and mountain scenery indeed, but portance to an author than the materials he Sketches, for we do not think them gen- interesting for nothing else but the rogues collects. Indeed, we think it a pity that he erally so good; at least, those are not that infest it. And this is all we have of did not visit the continent before he pub- which particularly relate to the continent. Italy. What Mr Irving has told us here, lished his English Sketches. The first for- And we sustain our theory, and account is very well in its kind, but not what we eign land we see, excites us so much that we for this falling off, by supposing it to pro-expected, nor the best that might fairly be are exceedingly liable to give an exagge-ceed from his having been too long abroad expected from his visit to Italy. We are aware that our author cannot reasonably be expected to be always doing his best, more than a lawyer or a preacher; but like these, we expect him to rise with the occasion; and, surely, Italy might have suggest ed better subjects than its vagabond population and insignificant travellers. Let us be understood; we should not complain of these things if we had reason to expect the others. But as Mr Irving has in the fourth number turned short round upon America, we presume he means to give us no more of Italy; and if so, we take leave to say he has not given us the best of it. We wonder at this, indeed, more than we complain of it; for we admit we have no right to select subjects for him; and though speaking in the plural number is the plenitude of our power, the only 'sanction we could annex to our decrees, would be a threat not to buy or review his books; which he well knows we neither care nor dare to perform. We like the model of these tales very much. Like " Bracebridge Hall," they consist of distinct stories strung together on a slender narrative that runs almost unperceived through the number, and is of little other use than to introduce and connect the episodes. This gives us the pleasure and variety of short stories, without the formality of separate introductions. Thus, the third number is made up of a description of several parties of travellers meeting at an inn in Terracina, who hear and tell various stories, and are robbed and rescued on the way to Fondi. The main story occupies about forty out of a hundred and thirty-five pages, and is altogether the least interesting part. Much depends, in this way of writing, upon the adroitness with which the adscititious stories are brought in; and we cannot say that Mr Irving is always happy in this. Too many of them read from manuscripts accidentally in the possession of the principal personages, or are introduced by some phrase equivalent to the "that reminds me" of a confirmed story-teller. are The next remark we have to make on Mr Irving's tales is a very serious one. We are bound to charge him with the vulgarism of indelicacy. This is a fault which seems peculiarly out of place in him; for he must owe any rank he may hereafter hold in our literature, to his refinement rather than to his strength. All his writings display a delicacy of perception that seems incompatible with a gross taste; but it is not only a gross, but a vulgar taste, that can be gratified by printing a coarse joke. Such things will pass through the minds of the most refined, and may sometimes slip out in conversation, and leave no stain behind; but it is a very different thing deliberately to put them down in irrevocable print, for the private eye of the young and innocent. If the truth of the charge be denied, we refer for proof of it to the description of the comic shape of the Strolling Manager's Clown; to the indecency drowned in the crack! crack! of the postillion's whip at Terracina; the innuendoes in the "Bold Dragoon;" the indelicacy with which that the shortlived wonder of a stranger, and he is slyly smothered in the description of has caught little of the spirit of France or Dolph Heyliger's mistress, which might Italy; but among the old Fraus and Mynhave been said openly without any breach heers, he seems as if he belonged to their of propriety; and finally, the shocking story age as well as country. His feelings soften of the "Young Robber," where a scene the and his humour brightens, as he approaches most revolting to humanity is twice unne- them, and all nature puts on a quiet and cessarily forced on the reader's imagination. peculiar grace in harmony with their charWe say unnecessarily, for how much more acters. truly tragical, as well as more decent, would that tale have been, if the scene where Rosetta is left alone with the Captain had been A Summary of the Law and Practice of omitted; and the "lot" had fallen on the Real Actions; with an Appendix of Practical Forms. unhappy lover who was so soon to be her By Asahel Stearns, executioner. And yet these horrors are the Professor of Law in Harvard University. Boston. 1824. 8vo. pp. 528. only incidents of the story to which we are indebted to Mr Irving's invention; at least, An Essay on the Law of Contracts, for the we have heard the tale ourselves, the same Payment of Specific Articles. By Danin every thing but these particulars. We iel Chipman. Middlebury. 1822. pp. 224. hope not to be thought squeamish on THE first of these valuable works is a strikthis subject; for we believe we have as ing instance of the indirect utility of our classical a taste in rude nature as is neces- literary institutions. They gather able and sary in literature or the arts. We appre- learned men, and lay upon them the charge hend that it is the part of true delicacy to of educating the youthful and growing look on nature dressed and undressed, with minds of successive generations. If this equal eyes. But we like neither jokes nor duty be well performed, such institutions horrors built on such subjects. And why abundantly sustain their claim to public is it that this fault has grown so much upon protection; but when these more direct and Mr Irving since the publication of the immediate uses are efficiently discharged, "Sketch Book," which contains, as far as other duties of a collateral nature, but perwe remember, no traces of it? Can it be haps neither less imperative, nor less imbecause that publication was addressed to portant, can scarcely be disregarded. The the American public, and his subsequent instructers have not only sufficient leisure, works to the English! We have no doubt and all literary facilities allowed them, that that the standard of delicacy is higher in they may learn, but perpetual acquisition our country than in England; but we should and improvement form-or should formbe sorry to think that Mr Irving is willing the actual tenure by which their offices to owe any popularity in that country to the are held; they must learn, that they greater laxity of its manners. He has may teach. It is easy for an instructer to been cordially received, and almost adopt- know more than it is necessary that his ed there, but we trast he will still remem- pupil should learn from him; but he who ber the country of his birth and education, gives himself heartily to the business of edin all things in which she can claim a supe-ucation, will strive to keep up with, and to riority, as we think she can in this. We aid the progress of thought and knowledge consider this much more than a mere mat- in the world; to enlarge the extent, and ter of taste. Mr Irving needs not to be increase the utility of that measure of told, that to debase the literary taste of a knowledge which his pupils may acquire, country is no small step towards corrupting and to make the discipline to which they its morals. But we take great pleasure in are subjected, more efficient and profitable. bearing our testimony to the correct and Moreover, the collision of various minds valuable tendency of his writings in every strikes out from all more light, and gives particular but this; and even of this we to all more warmth; and scholars, who are should have spoken, perhaps, too harshly, connected together as are the officers of a did we not point our remarks rather at the college, and who love their duty, and wish to nature than the degree of the offence. perform it faithfully, while they perpetually become better able to discharge this duty, can hardly fail to accumulate stores of useful thoughts or profitable learning, that cannot be wholly expended upon their pupils; and it would be their duty to impart these stores to the public. In England and on the continent, many of the most valuable works published, are written by persons connected in some way with the Universities. We hope Professor Stearns' volume may be regarded as an earnest that our own Cambridge, and her sister colleges, will not, in time to come, be barren of good books. It is probably not known to all our readers, that "The Painter's Adventure" is, in the main, a true account of what befell an artist in the employment of Lucien Buonaparte a few years ago; and that "The Young Robber's Tale" is founded on a story that was actually told him by one of the gang that carried him off. The fourth Number returns to the banks of the Hudson, ground on which Mr Irving is always successful. His tales of the New Netherlands, of the queer simplicity of the ancient inhabitants, and their odd and wild superstitions, have the life and freshness of pictures from nature, with the mist and mellowness of age. To us, all his European sketches were cold and tame in comparison with these. His enthusiasm for England is Soon after Professor Stearns took charge of the law department in the University, he prepared a course of Lectures upon the Law and Practice of Real Actions, the util living in Westminster Hall, or in Boston, that Mr Chipman, and other men of equal or any where else, by his law, if he came ability, may be induced to make other books out of his grave tomorrow. Now, though of similar character. It is intended to be one of that class, of which the inimitable "Essay on Bailments," by Sir William Jones, was the prototype, and, as we hope, the precursor of many yet to come. To use the language of the last mentioned work, "if all the titles, which Blackstone professed only to sketch in elementary discourses, were filled up with exactness and perspicuity, Englishmen" (and we as the descendants of Englishmen, and co-heirs with the present race of the better part of their admirable system of law) "might hope, at length, to possess a digest of their laws which would leave but little room for controversy, except in cases depending on their particular circumstances." ity of which he found greater than he had expected; and, at the request of some of his pupils and of friends learned in the law, the substance of these Lectures is now pub-it may be true, that my Lord Coke, for a lished in this form. We can say, without term or two after such resuscitation, might fear of contradiction, that the publication be astounded at the novel appearance of of this work has supplied a desideratum, things, yet we do believe, that he would which all, in any way conversant with the bring with him a knowledge of the law as law, have acknowledgd, and which students it was, which would so aid him in learning and the younger members of the bar have the law as it is, that his old supremacy especially felt. would shortly be reestablished. The chanA full and long review of this excellent ges of the law have been gradual,-never work would be interesting to but few of our very violent, never per saltum. Its course readers; we must, however, in justice to has been progressive, but not interrupted; our professional brethren, state to them and an actual, an important connexion exwith some distinctness, the objects and uses its between its various conditions in various of a book which is made for them at no in- periods. Only the last links of the chain are considerable expense of time and labour. felt by us; they not only bind together the The Introduction, which extends to the interests, and properties, and rights of all, 47th page, explains with great clearness and form them into one beautiful structure; and accuracy the fundamental principles of but they are held fast to an unbroken sethe Law of Real Property. The technical ries, which goes far backwards into the terms are translated into more common depths of almost forgotten ages. Cases language, and their meaning defined and are now perpetually recurring, which are illustrated. The first chapter treats of the deeply affected by a reference to cases that remedies for those injuries to real property occurred centuries ago. Let any one run which amount to an ouster; and in this through a volume of Pickering's Reports, chapter, the great diversity and intricacy and he will see how often court and counof practice which prevails in England, with sel are compelled, by a necessity they respect to these remedies, is strongly con- cannot evade if they would, to call upon trasted with the simplicity and directness of obsolete law, to help them to the right the practice adopted in Massachusetts. The understanding and administration of actual second chapter treats of Real Actions, and law. No doubt, students are sometimes their incidents; the third of Warranty, embarrassed and exposed to some tax of Covenants, and Voucher; the fourth, of time and labour, by the negligence of auWrits of Entry, and the proceedings there-thors whose works are put into their hands, on. In this chapter the Writs of Entry in the Quibus and in the Post, which are so common in the practice of this State as to have almost superseded all other forms of Real Actions, are very fully and clearly illustrated; there is also an interesting Appendix to this chapter, upon the origin and nature of Mortgages, and the Chancery Jurisdiction respecting them. The fifth chapter treats of Writs of Dower; the sixth, of Writs of Formedon; the seventh, of Writs of Right, and the eighth and last, of the Action of Trespass for the Mesne Profits. There is added an Appendix containing one hundred and one Precedents in Real Actions, and a number of ancient records of proceedings in the courts of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts, for the recovery of Real Property, during the seventeenth century. All the subjects treated of in the work are discussed and explained as fully as was practicable, without enlarging its size to a cumbrous and very inconvenient magnitude. Some of his readers may think that too large a proportion of his work relates to ancient law; to forms, and even principles, which are now neglected and ought to be forgotten. The law of to-day is doubtless a very different thing from the law of three hundred years ago; and it is with actual living law that students and practitioners should be most conversant. But this is only one side of the case. We once heard an eminent jurist, we may say, the most eminent jurist of this country,-declare, that in his opinion, Coke could not earn a in not stating with sufficient distinctness how much of what they are reading is directly, and how much is indirectly applicable to the law of the present day. But this fault can in no wise be charged upon Professor Stearns; indeed, his clearness and precision in this respect constitutes a very large part of the value of his work. The student will be able to distinguish our system of real actions from that now in practice in England. He will not only see, but be in some measure taught to account for the singular fact, that forms and processes, and legal remedies, which had become nearly obsolete in England when our fathers came from her shores, have been retained, or rather revived, here,―stripped of the thousand inconveniences and embarrassments which brought them into disuse, and wrought into a system more simple, more useful, and far better in every respect than that now in use in England, or in those states which have adhered with blinder fidelity to the models upon which their rules and forms of jurisprudence are fashioned. It is due to Professor Stearns to remark, that his precedents are, in every respect, excellent; and we need not remind any practising lawyer, how much a collection of precedents of this kind, well arranged for convenient reference, has been wanted. Mr Chipman's Essay was published some time since, so long, perhaps, that it may be thought almost beyond our reach. We notice it, however, because we should be glad to make it better known to our lawyers, not only for the good it may do them, but The administration of the laws of our author's own State, is, indeed, judging from the account he gives of it in his Preface, in a woful case. The Legislature, he tells us, in effect, consists of but one branch only; the judges are annually elected by this legislature; Justices of the Peace have jurisdiction to the amount of one hundred dollars; "statutes are multiplied, and settled rules of the common law are set aside by statutes, and those statutes frequently altered, amended, explained, or repealedand frequently, from a supposed wrong construction of a statute by the judiciary, an explanatory statute has been passed, of more doubtful construction than the statute which they attempted to explain ;"—" and it has often been made a question whether the law should be altered, or a judgment set aside by an act of the Legislature, and the judges displaced." Such a state of things must sooner or later work its own cure, and no palliatives can prolong the time when the people must, for their own protection, provide for a permanent judiciary, and less fluctuation in their laws. Our author proposes, as remedies, the publication of all decided cases, and of such Essays as his own. Their books of Reports would probably resemble Southard's New Jersey Reports, where five sixths of the cases are on certiorari from Justices of the Peace, and more than one half terminate with the ominous words, "Let judgment be reversed." Besides, of what service would the Reports be, if the Legislature, taking offence at the decision of one set of judges, remove them, and appoint others for the very purpose of overturning the prior decisions. If numerous essays as good as the one before us be published, and every abstruse title be by them plainly elucidated, still, though the judges of one year take the law of these essays for their guide, the next year's judges, from a spirit of contradiction, may forbid their being read in the courts. Such a course of things cannot go on. Mr Chipman's proposed forms of declaring and pleading in actions on contracts for the delivery of specific articles, and his observations on what ought to be the legal effect of the verdict, and on the measure of damages, seem to us sound and just; and we hope that the system which he recommends, may be adopted in practice. We fully a well established and legal practice both that I could plainly discern the form and concur with him in the observation which in England and in this country. In this position of the several stones which compose he makes in his Preface, that the law on this Commonwealth it is expressly authorized it;-and yet I must confess to a secret feelsubject cannot be settled by statutes; "that by statute even in so important an instru- ing of disappointment; but it was all my a volume of laws might be enacted on this inent as a will. If we were to use the same own fault; I either had forgotten, or did not single branch of jurisprudence, and still liberty with Mr Chipman that he has taken correctly know, their true size; and foolishly leave the system imperfect;-the law must with the ancient English judges, we should expected, I believe, to find each particular be settled by a course of judicial decisions." guess, that his secret reason for assailing stone as tall as a church tower. I speedily Before we conclude, we think it our duty this practice was a little infection of the reasoned myself, however, into a proper to animadvert upon one passage in this fondness for legislation with which, in his mood, and disappointment then gave place book, which is wholly gratuitous, and which remarks upon the case of Weld vs. Hadley, to continually increasing admiration. For we were very sorry to see. It occurs on he charges his fellow citizens of Vermont. the remainder of the three miles we kept it We hope the author will meet with the in full view, still growing and growing, as pages 22, 23, and is this: success that he deserves, and be encouraged we gained upon it, till at last we quitted to write other essays as clear and logical the beaten road, and driving over the short as this, upon the subjects which he enume-dry turf, stopped immediately beneath it. rates in his Preface. Though not intended for the profession, we doubt not that in their hands they will be most useful; few people can afford to purchase law books at the high price which they must necessarily bear; and we hope the picture of an ignorant lawyer, which is drawn by Mr Chipman with so much force in his Preface, is not a picture of a majority of the profession in Vermont; we are sure it will represent very few indeed in Massachusetts. I know it is very common for a person who can write to request a by-stander to put his name to a note; but such trifling with written instruments ought not to be permitted; it is a practice wholly unknown to the common law. Written contracts, in law and reason, hold a higher place than mere verbal contracts, not only as to the certainty of the precise terms of the contract, but as to the degree of certainty that the contract was entered into by the parties. But set aside the evidence of hand writing, and written contracts would fall below verbal contracts as it respects the certainty of their execution. Admit as proof of the execution of a note, that the defendant directed a by-stander to put his name to it, and proof of a consideration is dispensed with, as also proof of the contract on which the note was given, and should the witness be guilty of perjury, it could not be easily detected; beside, men are distinguished by their hand writing, with the same degree of ease and certainty, as by their countenances; bence, a higher degree of certainty in the proof of hand writing than in the proof of a verbal contract. The law does not, therefore, admit evidence that a third person was directed to put the defendant's name to the note, to be substituted for the more certain evidence of the hand writing of the defendant. There is no necessity for the admission of such testimony, for if the plaintiff fail of proving the execution of the note, yet if he can prove the contract on which the note was given, he may still recover his demand. With great deference to Mr Chipman, we must be permitted to state, that we thought the practice which he reprobates quite well known to the common law, so well indeed, that a maxim supporting it had been established from time immemorial, to wit, "Qui facit per alium facit per se." Mr Chipman admits that this is a common practice, which, alone, would, we think, be an argument in its favour. He urges the danger of perjury, and the superior certainty afforded by the evidence of handwriting. If the note were signed by an agent with his own name and the promissor's, which Mr Chipman allows to be valid, is the evidence of handwriting greater or the danger of perjury less? In such case parol proof must be given of the agents authority, which is exactly the danger against which he wishes to guard. It is not necessary in declaring on a promissory note to aver that the hand of the promissor is subscribed thereto; but in one case it was so declared, and the evidence being that it was signed by a third person in the presence and by the direction of the person whose name was written, Lord Ellenborough was inclined that the proof was sufficient to support the declaration, though if it had purported on the face of the instrument to have been signed by an agent, the variance would have been fatal.* We believe that this is We ought perhaps in justice to state,-a remark which we are sorry to say is equally applicable to many of our modern law books, both English and American,-that neither of these works is free from typo. graphical errors, which offend the eye, though few of them obscure the sense. This is the more to be regretted in the first of them, as the typography is eminently beautiful. *See 2 Camp. 405, Helmsley vs. Loader, and 5 Esp. 180, Levy vs. Wilson. MISCELLANY. A VISIT TO STONEHENGE. that huge pile (from some abyss Eddying within its vast circumference, Wordsworth's Excursion. September 11, 1820. STONEHENGE lies about eight miles from Salisbury; and it would have been a pity and a shame if I had left this part of the country, without visiting so remarkable an object. So this morning I jumped into a post-chaise for the purpose. Our course was to the northwest, and soon brought us to a wide, chalky, desert tract, called Salisbury Plain. The day was hot, and the atmosphere clear; and from one of the undulating eminences which alone diversify this barren waste, I could plainly distinguish, at the distance of five miles, what I knew must be Stonehenge. The appearance was like a number of small black dots, or like a flock of sheep when they are at the distance of a mile or so from the spectator. I then lost sight of it; but from another rising in the ground, which the post boy said was three miles from it, I caught it again. It was now so distinct So many of the stones have fallen, that the whole seems at first sight to be a confused assemblage of enormous masses of rock; bat after a while you discover three concentric circles of upright stones, and in the centre a single stone lying imbedded in the ground, which is called the altar. The most remarkable of these circles is the interior one, composed of huge blocks about twenty feet high, seven feet wide, and three feet thick; every two of which formerly supported a third, of nearly the same size, which has been called the impost, and which is rudely fastened to its two supporting pillars by a ball and socket joint. The three together, have received the appellation of trilithon. In this circle there are only two of these trilithons remaining entire. The second circle is composed of stones which are no more than seven feet high, and are separate pillars. But in the outward circle they rise to the height of fourteen feet, and are again formed into trilithons, several of which are standing and perfect. There have been many theories started with respect to the purpose and origin of this monument, a number of which have been collected together and printed at Salisbury in a small pamphlet. The two most prevalent are, the one, that it is a military trophy of the ancient Britons, and the other that it is a Druidical temple. But the truth is, that there is no authentic history relating to it; and it is next to an impossibility that any thing should ever be ascertained of its design or erection; but there it stands, the gloomy monarch of this lonely plain-the hoary record of an age that has no chronicle-the mighty work of nameless men-the scene and the witness of events that have long since gone down to oblivion;-there it stands, and there it has stood, while centuries of suns have poured their fiercest beams upon it, and winter after winter has brought the driving snow, and the pelting rain, and the sweeping wind, to help time on to its destruction;—but there it stands, and there it will stand, a wonder and a monument, when our histories, like its own, are forgotten. At the distance of fifty or sixty yards to the northeast of the main structure, and leaning towards it, is a large single stone, sixteen feet high, called the Friar's heel. This name is connected with the popular and traditional account of the erection of gious monument as Stonehenge, they chose pears to me to be gravely quizzing the antiquaries and etymologists;-if he is not, he is himself the most ridiculous of the whole fraternity. He pretends to have discovered every thing concerning this pile, the when, the how, the why, and the wherefore, and divides his article into twelve particulars, the second of which relates to the contested derivation. Hear it! "2. My second particular is, that a bloody battle was fought near Stonage. For the very name Stonage signifies Stone-battle; the last syllable age coming from the Greek y, a furious battle, &c.; so that all that have built their opinion of this monument on any other foundation than a bloody battle, have built Stonages in the air.”—But enough of this. They who still persist in giving no credit to the Friar's information, have been exceedingly puzzled in endeavouring to account for the elevation of such huge columns, in an age which must have been so rude and ignorant. The solution given by Rowland has the merit of ingenuity, although it cannot be determined that the method suggested by him was that employed by the real builders. I give it in his own words. After having viewed the monument it"The powers of the lever, and of the inclin- self, the attention is attracted to the nued plane, being some of the first things un-merous barrows, or sepulchral mounds, by derstood by mankind in the art of building, it may be well conceived that our first ancestors made use of them; and we may imagine, that in order to erect such a prodi which it is surrounded. Several of these trinkets, &c. As companions to Stonehenge, these barrows add much to the effect of the scene, and heighten the feelings of contemplative solemnity which are wrought up in the bosom of the beholder. There is nothing modern near the place for miles;-here is the vast and venerable monument, and scattered here and there about it, are the primitive graves of men who were doubtless familiar with its mysteries, but whose knowledge sleeps with them, as soundly as they do. It seems as if there must be some old and mighty sympathy between these remnants of a vanished age; as if in the deep silence of the sultry noon they might meditate together on the departed glories of their time; or, when the midnight storm was high, might borrow its exulting voice to talk of their well kept secrets, of battle and of victory-while every human ear was distant, and the sailing clouds, and the glancing stars, alone looked on at their solemn dialogue. In returning to Salisbury, I took a different road from that which brought me to Stonehenge, and at the end of two miles came to the village of Amesbury. While the postillion stopped here to refresh himself and his horses, I walked out, and passing a small, but old and pituresque church, entered the grounds of Amesbury House, a mansion belonging to Lord Douglas. The building was designed by Inigo Jones, and is a handsome looking house, but fast going to decay, as the present possessor has not inhabited it for years. The walls are defaced, the windows boarded up, and the glass broken. The grounds are as desolate as the dwelling; the banks of the Avon, which winds through them, are overgrown with long grass and bushes, and its stream is choked with mud and reeds; a bridge, with a summer-house in the Chinese fashion built upon it, is made almost impassable by its own ruins; the path is strewn with dead leaves and withered branches; the dial stone is overturned, and there is not even "One rose of the wilderness left on its stalk, To mark where a garden had been." Feelings more deeply sad and sorrowful are perhaps inspired by scenes like this, than by the remains of a more distant age;-decay is premature, and ruin has come before its time; the traces of desolation are marked upon familiar things, and the effects of many years have overtaken the workmanship of yesterday. When I returned to the inn, I found the chaise waiting for me. The sun was now very powerful, and its rays, by being reflected from the chalky road, were rendered doubly burning. Neither was there any thing in the scenery to refresh the spirit and cool the blood;—the harvest was over, and the fields were all dry stubble ;-not a cottage was to be seen, nor any living thing, excepting a shepherd whom we met, with his coat stripped off and thrown over his shoulder, covered with dust, and driving a flock of panting sheep over the heated downs. Within two miles of Salisbury, and at a short distance from the road, are the ruins of Old Sarum. The only dwelling near it |