398 Glass barrels.-The Window-tax. ling glass of as fine "nut-brown ale," as Burton or Nottingham ever boasted. "Hey!" said I to my worthy host, "whence came this bright excellent beverage?" "From my cellar."— "Why, I understood that the lightning and thunder had left you none fit to drink how has this escaped?" "It never occurred to me before; but this was bottled." 'Aye," said 1, "that has saved it. Glass is a non-conductor; and we are indebted to the valuable discovery of glass-making for this good liquor. Joseph! give me another bumper. Here," said I, "is success to the glass-trade!"'* Now, Sir, though the cooper will say "there is nothing like wood," might we not also (for special purposes) have barrels, as well as bottles, formed of glass? No one will pronounce this impracticable who has seen that most magnificent specimen of art so creditable to the spirit and ingenuity of modern times-" the Clarence Vase," at the Queen's Bazaar in Oxford-street: an object (for beauty and splendour) perhaps unequalled. I have termed it magnificent; and it really is an image of the word, embodying the fullest idea we can form of costly grandeur. Its capaciousness and weight are immense; much greater, I believe, than the celebrated marble one at Warwick Castle. As that is a noble appendage to the residence of a Peer, this would be a very appropriate one to the palace of a Monarch. Being on the subject of glass, I would, with due humility, suggest to his Majesty's Ministers, that, by abolishing the odious window tax, they would do an act as just as it would be popular. Nor, by the act, would the revenue be much diminished. For, windows to a house are like eyes to the human countenance: they enliven it. Let people have in their dwellings as many of these as they choose, and, by a vast addition of windows, the duty on glass would be vastly augmented and, instead of the unsightly fronts of human habitations, which now disfigure, with dismal signs of window tax, our villas and streets, we should behold houses looking as if they were happy residences, visited by what a kind Providence meant freely to shine : I live, Mr. Urban, where glass is one of the staple manufactures of the place. (Nov. on all-the cheering light of day. To withhold it from any human being, not incarcerated for crime, is unjust; as violating the primeval command, "Let there be light! and there was light.” Mr. Tierney's epigrammatic couplet shall not here be quoted, for an obvious reason. I will, however, express its meaning without its blasphemy: "The great Creator gave us light, And called its presence day: But, with taxation, caine a blight, And took that light away." But light is not the only advantage of windows. Superadded to the admission of that blessing, a requisite number of them in a residence is also conducive to health, by admitting a due portion of air, particularly in sleeping rooms. Whereas, it is notorious, in the country, that many farmers' servants sleep in rooms with the windows blocked up, to save the tax; thus sapping the constitutions of our peasantry. I could corroborate this statement by facts which have come to my knowledge; and medical gentlemen would confirm them. If Government cannot afford to lose the tax, let it merge in the house-tax, or be supplied from any other source, so that we get rid of the odious name. However, Sir, if I cannot benefit your readers by relieving them of a tax, I will, in conclusion, endeavour to amuse them with a glass-anecdote.-On the southern side of the oldest glass-house in my neighbourhood was formerly a sundial, bearing this motto-" Ut Vitrum sic Vita." In the same neighbourhood resided a wit, who was ignorant of Latin. Passing, one day, "the old dial glass-house," with a lady hanging on his arm, she said to him, "I have often wished to know the meaning of the words on that sun-dial; and, as you are so very clever, no doubt you can tell me. What is it?" Now, Mr. Urban, as no man likes to confess his ignorance-especially to a lady-he promptly replied, "The meaning, Ma'am? the meaning? why, it is this: When the sun shines, you may see what o'clock it is."" Yours, &c. L. B. Mr. URBAN, Bremhill, Nov. 22. I SHOULD be much obliged to you, if you would allow me, through your pages, to correct an error I have fallen into respecting the posthumous 1831.] Bp. Ken.-Pluralities held by Puritans. publication, in the name of Bishop Ken, called "Expostulatoria." Inadvertently, in speaking of the number of non-residents in every county, I observed "that it was singular no mention was made of the non-residents in Somersetshire!" The fact was, I had transcribed from this very old publication, of the date 1711, the list, in part; the last leaf of the publication having fallen out among my papers, and as I had looked only at the list I had before transcribed, and imagined I had copied the whole, I hastily concluded that Somersetshire had been omitted. The last leaf of this publication, with the loan of which I was favoured by my friend Mr. Todd, the author of the admirable "Life of Cranmer," has since been found; and I see the non-residents reported in Somersetshire to be 87 in the year 1711, instead of being omitted. I take this opportunity of saying further, that I find the work attributed to Bishop Ken, and published in his name the year after his death, was a reprint of a publication in 1663, under the title Ichabod," &c. If, therefore, written by Ken, it must have been written at an early period of his life, when Fellow of New College, and three years after the Restoration of Charles the Second. The "GROAN" on account of pluralities possibly might not have been quite so loud, if the writer had considered that the preceding saints under Cromwell deserved the " 'groan" for pluralities much more than the restored clergy; for the following is the list of the PREFERMENTS of one among those professing Puritans. Harris was President of Trinity College, Oxford, nominated by the Parliamentary Visitors in the room of Dr. Potter, ejected for his uncompromising virtue, and pronounced by the reforming Visitors contumacious!" The "godly" and disinterested Puritan President, Harris, was put in the place of the learned and virtuous Potter, who was left to poverty! Shortly afterwards we find accepted" Harris in the possession of the following pluralities!! at the then value: Hanwell, Bishopgate, towards Hanborough per annum, £. 8. Brought over 1410 Member of Assembly of Divines, at 4s. per day Apostleship in Oxford, at 10s. per day Total Pluralities 182 10 £.1665 10 Those preferred by the "godly" Parliamentary Visitors of Oxford, in the seventeenth century, were most of them as "disinterested" as Harris ! See the excellent remonstrance against a late Edinburgh Reviewer, called "Apologia Academica," just published by Murray. Mr. Hume, who perhaps may be the Head of the next Parliamentary Visitation at Oxford, informed the House of Commons that pluralities were unknown in the Church of Rome!! We have seen what they were in the Church of Geneva in England; but of the Church of Rome the last Cardinal in England, besides other possessions of the most inordinate ecclesiastical wealth, had only one Archbishopric of York! one Bishopric of Lincoln !! one Bishopric of Winchester!! It is not, however, to defend pluralities I write, but to request insertion in your ancient and able Literary Journal of a literary explanation, with some casual observations, not unimportant in the present day, suggested by this explanation. I am, &c. W. L. Bowles. PASSING a day this autumn at the pleasant town of Penrith, 1 visited some of the objects of interest in its vicinity, and amongst them was the Pillar erected by the Countess of Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery, to commemorate the last parting with her mother, called by the people in the neighbourhood, the Countess's Pillar. It stands on a little green eminence on the right of the high road from Penrith to Appleby, which is also the road to Appleby from Brougham Castle, whence no doubt the two ladies set out, the mother-who appears to have been left at Brougham, as she died there seven weeks after the parting,— accompanying the daughter so far on her journey. The distance from Brougham Castle is about half a mile. The home view from the spot on which it stands, is not in any respect strikO ing but in the distance, looking east 160 O 400 400 Countess Pillar near Penrith.-Brougham Hall. ward, we see the vast range of Cross Fell, a line of lofty hills extending for many miles, while behind, Saddleback appears raised above the other hills. The pillar consists of an octagonal shaft, each of the faces being twelve or fifteen inches in breadth. On this is raised a cube, over which is a kind of capital. The shaft is plain; but on the face of the cube which is toward the road, are two shields of arms, which appear to have recently been repainted. The one presents Clifford impaling Vesci, Gules, annulets Or, the marriage which gave the Cliffords their [Nov. great northern possessions. The other is Clifford impaling Russell, the achievement of the father or the mother of the lady by whom the pillar was erected; but plainly intended for the lady, since there is no crest, while the red griffin of the Cliffords is given over the other shield. There is also on this face the date 1654. The three other faces of the cube serve as the plates of sun-dials; but in that on the side from the road is inserted a brass-plate containing the well-known inscription, of which the following is an exact copy: THIS PILLAR WAS ERECTED ANNO 1650 BY YE RT HONOLE ANNE COUNTESS DOWAGER OF SHE ALSO LEFT AN ANNUITY OF FOUR POUNDS The inscription appears to be an addition to the original design, and not to have been put up until after the death of the Countess of Pembroke. It is awkwardly placed in the face of a sun-dial, and it is so much raised above the eye of the spectator, that it is read with difficulty. The stone-table no longer exists, but a stone still fixed firmly in the ground very near the pillar, seems to mark the place where it stood; and a flat stone lying in the ditch under the hedge at a short distance, is what appears to have been the table slab. One cannot but regret that a monument of a very interesting character should not be kept up, and that since some cost has been recently bestowed upon it, the table on which the benefaction of the Countess ought to be dispensed, has not been restored. Brougham Castle is a ruin, but it is the ruin of a magnificent edifice. The room which is the most entire, was evidently the chapel, a room of good proportions, on the south side of the castle, and having apartments beneath it. Brougham-hall, the seat of the Chancellor, is about a mile from the DEO. castle, in a beautiful situation; commanding extensive views of this fine country. The house itself has an air of ancestorial pretension; the decorations of the old ceilings being the arms and quarterings or impalements of the Broughams. Great improvements are now in progress; and in making them, regard has been shown to the preservation of the Roman inscriptions which have been found here. They are inserted in one of the walls, and in a situation where they are protected from the weather. The taste for inscriptions prevails in this district. I observed several (some of a recent date) at the little village of Gamont Bridge. But there is one which invites attention, not more by the words themselves, than by the careful manner in which the letters have been cut : OMNE SOLUM FORTI I could learn nothing of the person |