300 Church of St. Peter, Pimlico.-Committee on Anatomy. [April, cupied by an expanded flower. The An additional gallery at the west end, sustained on Ionic columns, contains the organ, and seats for the charity children; the case of the instrument is very neatly ornamented with a mitre, crosiers, and trumpets. The pulpit is on the south side of the Church; it is octangular, and rests on a pillar of the same form; it is tastefully carved in oak, and has a substantial appearance. The reading and clerk's desks are on the opposite side of the area. This Church is very creditable to the architect; without any exuberance of ornament, or extraordinary expense in decorations, it has a solid and chaste appearance; its plainness would scarce give offence to the most rigid, whilst the elevation of the altar gives that decided character to the building which most modern churches, and especially those in which, like the present, the aisles are omitted, are deficient in: the importance of the altar is little understood by the generality of architects; its dignity has, however, been a subject of attention with Mr. Hakewell, and his judicious arrangement of it has greatly added to the appearance of the interior of the Church. The ground for the site was given by Lord Grosvenor, and the sum of 5,555l. 11s. 1d. was granted by the Royal Commissioners towards the building. The number which may be accommodated is 1657 persons. The first stone was laid Sept. 7, 1824; and on July 20, 1827, the Church was consecrated by the Bishop of London (Dr. Howley). After the ceremony_had been gone through, the Rev. Dean of Carlisle, (Dr. Hodgson, the Rector of the parish,) delivered a very impressive discourse on the text, The house of the Lord is perfect." In the course of his discourse, the reverend gentleman adverted to the want which had been long felt of a new house of prayer in that extensive parish, and expressed his satisfaction that it had been supplied by so beautiful a building. E.I.C. I Mr. URBAN, April 10. AM a little surprised that even an "Occasional Contributor" to your Magazine, should have written a letter so full of absurdities as that published in your last number, p. 216.* He commences by admitting the necessity of a knowledge of anatomy, and proceeds to show that the only means whereby such knowledge can be ob tained is reprehensible and mischiev ous. That his reasoning is as inconclusive as his premises are just, I will, with your permission, endeavour to make apparent. Your correspondent very gravely charges the Select Committee of the House of Commons with unfairness for examining men who are interested in continuing the practice of human dissections. Now, who are these men? they are teachers of anatomy, the most eminent practitioners in surgery and medicine, the editor of the Lancet, and sundry resurrectionists,-all certainly "interested"-vitally interested -in the subject on which they gave evidence, but from their being actuated by different motives, the truth was more likely to have been elicited. How the Committee acted unfairly in examining the only persons who could give satisfactory information I am yet to learn. Suppose it were a question as to the propriety of introducing a * Previously to the publication of this letter, our well-intentioned Correspondent was no more. See our Obituary, p. 279. 1829.] Dissections necessary in the Study of Surgery. new wheel or spring, or altering those at present in use, in some piece of machinery-say, for example, a watch -to whom should we apply for intelligence to a tailor or bricklayer, or to the party more nearly "interested"— the watchmaker? The answer is obvious. On the same principle, and by a parity of reasoning, I would say surgeons can best tell whether anatomy should be taught by means of dissection, and resurrection-men can best describe (although unwillingly) the evils of the present mode of supplying the dissecting rooms. Your Correspondent next states, "that it does not appear to him necessary there should be in London one thousand medical pupils instructed annually" if he, or any one else, can devise a plan for lessening the number, he would confer a lasting benefit on the medical profession and the public. He then goes on to say, that because there are "many cases in surgery which do not render it necessary that the surgeon should have dissected a dead body,' therefore dissections are not required for a knowledge of anatomy, which may be procured from "preparations, models, casts, and prints, with accurate descriptions." I will suppose a case: I will suppose your "Occasional Contributor" to be afflicted with a disease which for its removal required a surgical operation. Two surgeons shall be sent for; one who had acquired his knowledge of anatomy from "preparations, models, casts, and prints;" the other from dissecting the human body, and on which he had performed the various operations: into whose hands I ask would your Corre spondent intrust the knife? Indeed he refutes his own argument, for in the very next sentence he tells us, "that the numerous dissections which have taken place since the late Dr. Hunter first gave lectures in London have been of use is not doubted,”ergo they should not be prosecuted. I am very ready to grant that a minute knowledge of anatomy is not absolutely necessary to a general practitioner in London and other large towns, where in extraordinary cases assistance may be procured from those denominated pure surgeons, who have made it their business to investigate the form and situation of the smallest and most delicate part of the human frame for the purpose of performing the required 301 operations. But by far the largest number of medical pupils who annually come up to London are destined to pursue their avocations in retired villages and market towns, where a second opinion is hardly to be obtained, and superior skill is looked for in vain. Upon these then devolve the arduous and responsible duties of the practical surgeon and physician. If they should be ignorant of anatomy, of the structure of the animal machine in its healthy condition, how is it possible they can provide efficient remedies when it is disordered by disease? The consequences of such ignorance would be dreadful. Pray let us have no impediments thrown in the way of dissections, and if no other system for getting a sufficient supply of bodies can with safety be adopted than that recommended by the Select Committee, let us console ourselves in the language of Shakspeare, that " to do a great right we must do a little wrong." As your Correspondent has referred to a letter in the Morning Herald, I will, in return, refer him to another which appeared in that journal for March 21, 1828, wherein he will find a sufficient reason why medical men so seldom direct their own bodies to be dissected. Yours, &c. A CONSTANT Reader. Mr. URBAN, Maize-hill, Greenwich, IT affords me much pleasure to make your Magazine the channel of communicating the name, country, arms, and exploits of a Knight of the Garter of the reign of King Edward the Fourth, who has had the extraordinary fate of falling into such total oblivion, that the industry of the heralds and antiquaries has not been able to discover even his name; and his place in the tables of the Knights of this illustrious Order has no other particular than the title of some small fief in Naples, which, in all probability, has repeatedly since passed into different families. If you will turn to Ashmole's History of the Order of the Garter, with the Author's corrections, and continued down to 1715, or if you will refer to Ashmole's original publication, or to Buswell's 3 Account of the 1 8vo. London, 1715. 2 Fol. London, 3 8vo. London, 1757. 1672. 802 An unknown Knight of the Garter ascertained. [April, Knights, you will there find, under the list of knights made by Edward IV. number 199th, this, or a similar entry, ......Lord Mountgryson in Apulia : the first line of dots implying that the name of this Knight was unknown, and the second dotted line signifying that his arms were unknown: and although it is a very extraordinary circumstance (as it is also a solitary instauce), that a Knight of the very high Order of the Garter could ever be unknown, yet it has been to me a proof of the accuracy with which the tables of Ashmole and others were compiled, to find that, on searching their histories for a Knight who had escaped their research, and whose name they could not tell, they had, nevertheless, left a space and blank shield, in token of the deficiency. Before noticing this unknown Knight I shall briefly speak of his family. The House of Spinola, which became ducal in the republic of Genoa in 1531, is descended from Guido Spinola, who, returning from the first Crusade in 1999, was elected Consul of Genoa in 1102, from which period to the present hour the family have ranked amongst the most considerable of the Italian nobility, strengthening themselves by great alliances, attaining the highest honours (ten having been Doges of Genoa, and twelve Cardinals of Rome), and blessed with so numerous a race, that it is considered there is no parallel to it in European families. A portion of the pedigree has lately been published in the " Genealogie delle Famiglie Nobili di Genova,' containing the names of about six thousand members of that family, with their descent. But, whilst Italy was filled with eminent characters of the House of Spinola, their name extended to distant parts of Europe, from the prowess of Paolo Battista Spinola, who, in France as well as in England, added to the glory of his ancestors by two celebrated actions. Engaged in the wars of Edward, King of England, he found himself in Boulogne in Picardy, a city then in possession of the English, though closely besieged by the French. In one of the sallies which were made upon the enemy, he took a French nobleman prisoner who spoke in dishonourable terms of the Italians, protesting that he would rather have died than surrendered himself to a Genoese, and have honoured him with his imprisonment. He was, nevertheless, taken, and conducted with other prisoners to London, for the disposal of King Edward: but Spinola not being able to rest patiently under the injuries of the Frenchman, offered a large sum of money to purchase his liberty of the King, which this generous Prince, however, gave (most graciously) without price. Having done this, Spinola gave the Frenchman (now free) arms, a horse, and every thing which he might stand in need of for his journey, and then, with the approbation of Edward himself, he challenged him to prove, at a certain place and time, the offence of his tongue with his sword. Many were the cavaliers of each nation who came to await the issue of this duel; but the Frenchman, dissatisfied with himself, had not the courage to be present, so that the Spinola, after having waited above one hour, and often traversed the field with his sword in hand, departed, followed by the bystanders, calling him, with merry voices, the courageous defender of the Italian name and dignity. The other heroic action of Paolo Battista Spinola not only obtained for him the applause of individuals, but the reward of the Prince, and the immortality of his name. There was a popular tumult in London, directed against the person of King Edward, and already the heads of the conspirators had commenced, with numerous followers, a slaughter in the King's palace. Paolo Battista Spinola, well knowing that he owed the faith of a cavalier to the Prince whom he served, quickly occupied with a little Italian band, the narrow part of a bridge, which the rebels were on their way to traverse, and they were by this modern Ligurian soldier, as of old was done by the Roman, so vigorously and steadily opposed, that the King had time to save himself, and the battle having been continued until the night, the conspirators were totally discomfited. The King, in gratitude, thereupon created him Knight of the Garter, assigned him a large pensiou out of the taxes of the kingdom), and gave him the privilege of quartering with (adding to?) the Spinola armis, the Rose, a badge of the Royal House of England, Although I do not observe in my histories of the Spinola family any 1829.] Spinola Family.-Lewis Dunn. mention of the title of Mont Gryson, of Apulia, yet it is most probably the name of some small fiefs possessed by the Knight, as many of the Genoese nobles derived their dignities from Neapolitan fiefs (Apulia forming the Eastern side of the Kingdom of Naples), the Republic not having any dignities of their own, with the excep tion of that of Doge. The authority for this small portion of English history is, a work entitled "Istoria della famiglia Spinola descritta della sua origine fino al secolo XVI. Da Massimiliano Deza, della congregazione della Madre di Dio. Piacenza, 1694,* page 274. The Spinola arms are, Or, a fess chequy Argent and Gules, in chief a trefoil slipped of the second. The ancient bearing of the family was, per fess Azure and Gules, in chief a trefoil Or; and not having at present ascertained when the alteration took place, I cannot say which shield was borne by the Knight of the Garter, though I think the first. The Spinola family have, for very many generations, preserved their family records in a manner which might well serve as a model for many noble families in this kingdom. They have an archivist, and the work of Father Deza was, in all probability, compiled from documents and histories of the family preserved in their archives; and nothing but the care of the present Marquis Spinola's ancestors in the registering and preservation of their family manuscripts, could have enabled him to supply to the Genealogie delle famiglie Nobili di Genova, a pedigree containing the descent of six thousand persons of the name of Spinola, all issuing from one common ancestor; yet is it well worthy of a few moments' consideration to think upon the futility of man's immortal name; and that, notwithstanding the prophecy of the Knight's biographer, that the Knight would, for his conduct, obtain the immortality of his name, yet, not only is the action which was to confer this immortality unknown to the historians of the country where it took place, but the hero is the only individual in a series of Knights, continuing in uninterrupted succession for nearly five hundred years, * Fol. pp. 360. 303 Mr. URBAN, Shrewsbury, April 4. H published of the Gentleman's WAVING read in the number just Magazine, a letter from Dr. Meyrick, relative to a collection of Welsh pedigrees, and having for some years devoted what time I could spare from the avocations of a laborious business to the collection of such genealogies, with a view at some future period to arrange under their several tribes and chiefs the descent of every family that I can trace with accuracy, I have taken the liberty of troubling you with this letter. Lewis Dwnn, of whom Dr. Meyrick speaks, was celebrated of the 16th century, and is stated by historian, as well as poet and herald, some authors to have been preceptor in such learning as he excelled, to the celebrated Dr. Richard Williams, bishop of St. David's, and one of the translanowned Mr. Henry Salesbury, author tors of the Bible, as well as to the reof the Welsh Dictionary. There were in the 16th century two families knightly family resident at Cydweli, of the name of Dwnn, the one a descended from Meuric king of Dyved, but descended from the Lord Rhys. the other also a South Wales family, To this latter I apprehend Lewis Dwnn belonged; for in a very valuable collecpossession of John Vaughan, esq. of tion of Welsh pedigrees, now in the this town, and written for the most part in the sixteenth century, and as I conceive, between the years 1550 and 1560, I find under Llanvair y Muellt, "John Dwnn, Lewys ac Howel, meibion Stephen ap Davydd ap Llewelin ap Phylip ap Meurye ab Hoedlyw ab Rys Vychan ap yr Arglwydd Rys." Lewis probably went to reside at Bettws, co. Montgomery. John Davies, who with William Hughes attests Mr. Evans's copy of pedigrees, was, I conceive, John Davies the elder, gent. of Rhiwlas, in the parish of Llansilin, co. Denbigh, a celebrated Welsh genealogist in his day, and father of John Davies the younger, gent. of the same place, also a celebrated genealogist, and the author 304 Valuable Collection of Welsh Pedigrees. of the "Display of Heraldry," a small work now extremely rare, but which is very honourably mentioned by Mr. Yorke in his Royal Tribes, and does indeed contain some valuable information. A sister's son of the last-mentioned Mr. Davies, named John Reynolds, having obtained possession of some of his uncle's MSS. published a work founded thereon, in the year 1739, which is also very scarce, although from Mr. Reynolds's ignorance of the subject it abounds with errors. The volume of pedigrees to which I have alluded as in the possession of John Vaughan, esq. of this town, is, I presume, much larger than Mr. Evans's. It has lost the title, but commences with the descent of the Mortimers, Earls of March, &c. Then follow the descents of all the heads of tribes and chiefs of families, from whom the gentry both of North and South Wales derive themselves. The next article is an historical and genealogical account of the descent and partition of the principality of Powys, among the descendants of Bleddyn ab Cynvyn, prince of Powys. To this succeeds the genealogies of all the British Saints, and then comes a very correct and comprehensive treatise on heraldry, exemplified by a variety of escutcheons and forms of bearings, as in the heraldic works of the present day. This treatise is followed by the emblazoned coats of arms of the heads of tribes and chiefs of ancient families of Wales; after which come the pedigrees of, as I presume, nearly every family of respectability then resident in the six counties of North Wales, and of every one of Welsh descent in the Marshes; together with a great number of pedigrees of families resident in South Wales. The whole of the pedigrees come down to about the middle of the sixteenth century; a few have had some additions made to them, which bring them to the middle of the seventeenth century; and of these latter, two or three of the pedigrees are in the English language. With these exceptions the whole of the MS. is in Welsh, and very fairly written in the style of that period. The pedigrees are some of them very extensive and elaborate, shewing not only the direct descent of the male and female ancestors of the parties living at the period in which it was written, but also every male and female in the various collateral de [April, scents through which the parties can derive their ancestry, all carried up to some known common ancestor. The pedigrees have, as the MS. shews, been collated with the books of the following heralds and bards: Thomas Johns of Tregarron, 1690. Grufydd Hiraethog, 1530. Grufydd Llwyd ap William Llwyd. There are occasionally short historical memoranda introduced; and some notes that are appended, have attached to them names and initials which induce me to believe that the MS. has passed through the hands of the celebrated Edward Lhwyd, the antiquary, and Mr. John Salesbury. The volume contains about 300 closely written leaves, not above half a dozen of the pedigrees being in a tabular form. Mr. Vaughan, who now possesses the MS., is a lineal descendant of Griffith, youngest son of the celebrated antiquary Robert Vaughan, of Hengwrt, esq.; but a memorandum at the commencement of the volume, shows that the book was given to Mr. Vaughan's grandfather by his cousin Mr. Owen, of Garth-Angharad, co. Merioneth, a gentleman descended from Meuric, king of Dyved. As Mr. Vaughan was himself unacquainted with the contents of the MS. he was kind enough to lend it me, and to permit me to extract from it; so that I have been enabled to copy from it all the descents. Presuming that what I have written may not be uninteresting, I remain, |