As a Member!-At home and abroad, like the air He was sought and admired, for the sunshine was there Giving breath to the lip, lighting fire in the eye, but a candid and discerning criticism can racious, as far back as the third century trace in them traditions, apparently vebefore the Christian era. The custom of repeating the sagas is still retained in Iceland. In the remoter vallies of that island, and wherever the manners of the people have not been contaminated by an association with the Danes, the evening amusements of the assembled family are the reading of their histories or the recital of their poems. In the preceding chapter it has been seen what valuable materials the Icelandic sagas can furnish to the history of geographical discoveries. "Some princes of the middle ages knew the value of a science which enables sovereigns to estimate the strength of their dominions. Had the Scandinavian princes been acquainted with the mariner's Lawrence! sleeps with his Fathers in perfect compass, they would soon have made the To the canvas imparting the spirit and sky; Unblemish'd, regretted, exempted from woes, repose! MAPS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. The second volume of that interesting publication the Cabinet Cyclopædia, has a very luminous and valuable article upon Maps as constructed during the middle ages; its length precludes us from giving more of it than the following curious extract. "During the middle ages the term geography almost wholly gave way to what was deemed an equivalent expression, the wonders of the world. Nearly all the early narratives of travels and geographical relations hold out, in their titles, the promise of something marvellous. Among the regulations made by William of Wickham, for the regulation of the College which he had just founded at Oxford, is the following provision 'When, in the winter, on the occasion of any holyday, a fire is lighted for the fellows in the great hall, the fellows and the scholars may, after their dinner or their supper, amuse themselves in a suitable manner, in the great hall, with singing or reciting poetry, or with the chronicles of different kingdoms, and the wonders of the world, and every thing that befits the character of the clergy.' "But the Scandinavians and the Arabians are, perhaps, the only people among whom the reading or recital of histories ever became the ordinary amusement. The Icelandic sagas were, in the middle ages, familiar to the memories of the Northmen. They were recited at every festival, and read aloud in private; they beguiled the tedious length of northern evenings. The most ancient of these historic tales are supposed to have been written in the eleventh century; circuit of the earth. In 1231, Waldemar II, King of Denmark, had a general survey made of his dominions, and a topographical table framed accordingly; a wonderful work for the thirteenth century. "The kings of England were animated with the same spirit, and have left behind still more striking proofs of their attention to statistics. Notwithstanding the general destruction of the ancient monastic collections in the reign of Henry VIII. there still remain several maps of the British islands made in the course of the twelfth century, and which serve, in no small degree, to illustrate the old historians. In some of these maps, which are very rude in design as well as execution, Scotland is represented as an island, separated from England by an arm of the sea. Ireland is also divided in two by the river Boyne, which is represented as a canal connecting the Irish channel with the Atlantic.* The towns are drawn in them of a disproportionate size; and the abbeys, with their walls, gates, and belfrys occupy so great a space, as to leave little room for the rivers, boundary lines, or places of less seeming importance. "In the East, where the revenues of the provinces are generally farmed out, or bestowed on the favourites at court, and where the coffers of the prince are usually replenished by confiscations and other acts of despotism, the head of the empire has no immediate interest in the condition of the countries which acknowledge his authority, The feudal system, on the other hand, as it was developed in Europe in the middle ages, created such a multiplicity of rights, and departed so *Gough's Brit. Top. i. widely from the simple mechanism of despotic governments, that the monarch, in order to enjoy all the fiscal prerogatives of his crown, was obliged to be well acquainted with the local particulars of his dominions. "The tendency of the feudal system to bring about the collection of statistical details, was manifested in England on the first introduction of the Norman law. William the Conqueror caused surveys to be made of the several counties, in which were marked the waste and the cultivated lands; the villages, with the numbers of their inhabitants, and the amount of the taxes which they paid. This is the work known by the name of Doomsday-book, begun in 1080, and finished in 1086, and containing a circumstantial description of all England, with the exception of the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham. The lands in tillage, the waste and inhabited districts, the population both free and in villeinage, with the nature of the services in which these last were bound; every circumstance, in short, even the number of the cattle, and the bee hives in each county, is detailed in Doomsday-book with scrupulous exactness. "A survey of a kingdom, executed in detail during the eleventh century, is evidently an event of great importance in the history of geography. It set an example of accuracy, suggested many observations, and created an interest in territorial details, which could not fail to exert an influence beyond the limits in which they first had birth. There exists a similar geographical record with respect to a part of Germany: this is a description, in Latin, of the March of Brandenburg, made on the plan of Doomsday-book, and executed in 1377, by order of the emperor Charles IV. 'Maps do not appear to have been very uncommon even in the darkest ages; however erroneous they may have been in their construction, they are often re ferred to by the monkish writers. Saint Gal, the founder of the celebrated abbey which bears his name (a name which has been subsequently transmitted to a Swiss canton), and who lived in the seventh century, possessed a map which is said, by the historian of that abbey, to have been of curious workmanship. Char lemagne had three tables of silver, on which were severally represented the earth, the cities of Rome and Constantinople. His grandson Lothaire, in the war which he waged with the other Carlovingian princes, broke the first of these tables in pieces, and distributed the fragments among his soldiers. "But the most curious geographical monument of the middle ages is a map preserved in the library of Turin, attached to a manuscript commentary on the Apocal pse, which was written in the year 787. It represents the earth as a plane bounded by a circular line, and divided into three unequal parts. To the South, Africa is separated by the ocean from a land called the fourth division of the world, where the antipodes dwell, and which the excessive heat of the torrid zone has hitherto prevented from being visited. At the four sides of the world are represented the figures of the four winds, each astride upon a pair of bellows, which he labours, and at the same time has a conch shell applied to his mouth, from which he blows hurricanes, as may be conjectured from his distended cheeks. At the top of the map (which is the East) are Adam and Eve, the serpent, and the tree of forbidden fruit. their right hand is Asia, with two high mountains, and the words Mount Caucasus and Armenia. From these moun At tains descends the river Eusis, (Phasis?) and falls into a sea which unites with the ocean, and separates Europe from Asia. Thus the author returned, in this part of his map, to the geography of the primitive Greeks. In the middle of the map is Mount Carmel, Mount Sinai, Judea, and some other names belonging to the Holy Land. Near a river, which seems intended to represent the Euphrates, are the words Abicusia, Timisci, fixi compi de Sera. In India are the islands Criza and Algure, the Chryse and Argurea, or gold and silver islands of the ancients. The Nile is also represented, and a note appended to intimate that it flows from distant mountains, and over sands of gold. Thus the obscurity which involves the origin of the Nile has been in all ages a subject of observation and source of fable. To the north of this map is the island Tile. In Sne, beyond Africa, to the south, are written these words-Besides these three parts of the world, there is beyond the ocean a fourth, which the extreme heat of the sun prohibits our being acquainted with, and on the confines of which is the country of the fabulous antipodes.' : THE Fine Arts have, with awful rapidity, sustained a great and heavy loss in the President of the Royal Academy Sir Thomas Lawrence died about nine o'clock on Thursday evening, (Jan. 7), at his house in Russell-square. This sad event took place without any of those distant intimations which so often tell man to prepare for death. Sir Thomas Lawrence was in such perfect health that he dined on Saturday (Jan. 2,) with a distinguished party, at Mr. Peel's, where he became suddenly, but not alarmingly indisposed. Iuflammatory symptoms appearing, however, he was bled; and this operation produced so good an effect, that on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, he was able to go out as usual. On the Wednesday he was at the Athenæum Club-house, and at Messrs. Coutts, the bankers; and the subject of conversation now remembered was that of an exquisitely-written letter of condolence sent by him to one of the partners, on the decease of his daughter. On reaching home in the afternoon, his complaint (an inflammation of the bowels) returned with such violence, that he survived little more than twentyfour hours, his last words being addressed to his valet who was attending him*****, I am dying!!" This is not yet a time to enter upon any details either of his private biography or of his merits as a painter; in both respects he was a man much to be admired and lamented. He was (we believe) somewhat above sixty years of age, and had never married. His appearance was extremely graceful and gentlemanlike; his manners full of suavity; and his countenance so pleasing and handsome, that it might almost, if the word were not misapplied to the masculine sex, be called beautiful. There was a striking resemblance to Mr. Canning, though not of so elevated an expression or character. On public occasions he was an elegant speaker; and, indeed, whether as an accomplished member of society or an eminent artist, we can rarely hope to see so many requisite qualities united in one individual to place him at the head of the Fine Arts in England. Who will succeed him in the President's chair it is impossible to anticipate :-Beechy, Etty, Hilton, Howard, others, are already spoken of by their Phillips, Pickersgill, Shee, Wilkie, and friends. We have certainly a proud list to choose from, independent of sculptors and landscape painters, who, we know not why, are not so much as mentioned as likely candidates. Sir Thomas Lawrence was engaged on many interesting works at the period of his demise; among others, a fine portrait of Sir George Murray, M.P. for the county of Perth. His last performance was the likeness of Miss F. Kemble ;— it may be stated, as a curious matter, that he executed this slight, but sweet drawing with much assumption of secresy; and that though we have said he had no warn ings given, it was observed of him, at a very recent representation of Juliet, by this delightful young actress, that he looked extremely ill in the theatre. Of himself, we know of no engraved portrait, except the small one in the Percy Anecdotes; nor of any picture, except one from his own pallet, which he was occasionally persuaded to shew, with great diffidence, to his friends, from its concealment beneath his side-board. Sir Thomas's collection, of the destina-. tion of which we are ignorant, is of the most magnificent and interesting description; his drawings, etchings, prints, and pictures of the ancient masters, as well as his choice specimens of modern schools, are rare, numerous, and of the highest value. For the above Biographical sketch we are indebted to the proverbially correct pages of the Literary Gazette, and for the following interesting particulars of the late worthy president to the Times Journal of the 13th inst. "In the Miscellanies of the Hon. Daines Barrington, a quarto volume published in 1781, the author, speaking of the early proofs of musical genius exhibited by the Earl of Mornington, father to the Duke of Wellington, takes occasion to mention the talent for a sister art displayed by a boy in the ninth year of his age. This boy afterwards became Sir Thomas Lawrence. Mr. Barring ton's words are― As I have mentioned so many other proofs of early genius in children, I cannot here pass unnoticed Master Lawrence, son of an innkeeper at the Devizes, in Wiltshire. 66 This boy is now (viz. February, 1780) nearly ten years and a half old; but at the age of nine, without the most distant instruction from any one, he was capable of copying historical pictures in a masterly style, and also succeeded amazingly in compositions of his own, particularly that of Peter denying Christ. In about seven minutes he scarcely ever failed of drawing a strong likeness of any person present, which had generally much freedom and grace, if the subject permitted. He is likewise an excellent reader of blank verse, and will immediately convince any one that he both understands and feels the striking passages of Milton or Shakspeare.' "Sir Thomas a short time previous to his dissolution had arranged with his townsman, Mr. Baily, the sculptor, to give his first sitting for a bust on the 11th of the present month, Monday last. Casts, we learn, were taken from the late President's face on Saturday last, both by Mr. Baily, to whom he always promised to sit exclusively, and Mr. Chantrey; we may therefore indulge a hope that a correct likeness of this admirable artist and most accomplished gentleman will be obtained, though necessarily bearing some marks of his fatal illness. "The following traits of his wellknown generosity have been sent us by another hand. "The first is of a living artist, whose name, from delicacy, we suppress; this artist, being a man of considerable merit and without patronage, had submitted three of his pictures to Sir Thomas's inspection. He called one evening at Sir Thomas's house, anxious to gain his approbation, and, at the same time, to take them away. He sent up his name to the President, who followed the servant down stairs, put a paper, folded up, into the hand of the artist, saying, I had left this, should you have called whilst I was from home. I much admire your pro ductions, and wish you every success.' The artist had only patience to get to the first lamp, when he was anxious to know what the paper contained; he unfolded it, and found within it a £30 note, which saved him from despair. "The next anecdote is that of Mrs. or Madame M., who was the widow of a highly endowed engraver. Being in great distress, she was advised to apply to Sir Thomas for his recommendation to the Artist's Benevolent Fund. On her interview the President candidly told her he could be of no service to her that year, as he had given away all his recommendations; but,' says he, accept this in the mean time (placing a £5 note in her hand), and I think I can serve you with the council and body of Academicians. From that respectable body Sir Thomas obtained for Mrs. M. no less than £50! "While the too notorious Thurtell lay in prison for trial, Sir Thomas expressed a wish that he might be allowed without observation to take a glance of the atrocious villain, as he took his exercise in the prison yard. This modest request was not only refused him, but was afterwards represented as an application to take a cast of the wretch's face before he was even tried, and information to this effect being actually conveyed to the reporters of several journals, who were present at Hertford for the purpose of making observations on so notorious a criminal, the statement unfortunately appeared in this and other morning publications. It was in a paper now extinct, that the kind-hearted President saw the gross impeachment of his humanity one morning, when he was going to paint that admirable portrait of the King, in which his Majesty is represented in a blue dress seated on a sofa, with his arm carelessly thrown over the end. Thomas was so affected, that he could hardly proceed with his work. The King observed his distress, and listened to the cause of it. The present Lord Stowell also consoled him, smilingly, by representing the liability to which all great men are subject, of having their actions misinterpreted. Sir We venture to add an anecdote of our own which bears testimony to the liberality and kindness of heart which Sir Thomas never failed to exercise towards the poorer members of his profession. Being on a visit to a gentleman in Wales, a young man of very promising genius, but with slender means, was recommended to his notice by his liberal entertainer. Having satisfied himself that there were strong indications of genius in the pro ductions of the young artist, Sir Thomas assured him of his patronage, paid his expences to London, and was the means of his disposing of numerous paintings that he had already on hand. The productions of that genius he had so kindly fostered appear annually on the walls of the Royal Academy, and we believe the artist was not long since sent to Rome for improvement, at the sole expence of his patron. We forbear, from motives of delicacy, to give the name of the party alluded to; but our readers may be as sured of the truth of this statement. The voice of Death Comes ilke the cyngets and beguiles the breath The circle pure, and cultivated well Illustrations of History. THE ARROW. READER, if thou art an Englishman, do not a crowd of associations rush upon thy mind at the mention of this once formidable missile? The arrow of the English yeoman has whistled o'er the vineclad fields of France, the swampy wastes of Holland and the burning plaies of Spain; ay, and shed the best blood and tamed the proudest chivalry of those countries. In all ages the power of that slender steel-shod shaft has often been acknowledged, and the fate of many would lead us to the conclusion that the hand of heaven had sometimes guided it. The flesh of Saul was goaded by the arrows of the Philistines; the archers hit him, For interesting particulars of this gentleman, see "Cecilians," page 41, Vol. 3, and he was sore wounded of the archers,” till, tormented by pain and despair, he died by the hand of his armour-bearer. The life and the iniquities of another ruler of Israel were ended by an archer; the skilful hand of Aster put out the right eye of Philip of Macedon with an arrow : an arrow ended the life of the virtuous Theban Epaminondas, and pierced to the brain our own brave Harold at the bloody battle of Hastings. An arrow quenched the fierce spirit of Rufus, and sent him unshriven and unabsolved before the judgment seat of Him with whom the monarch and the slave are one. The same missile slew the valiant Coeur-deLion. At the battle of Shrewsbury, Prince Henry was wounded in the face with an arrow, and Thierry, first Earl of Holland and Zealand, perished by the hand of an archer, who shot him in the thigh with a poisoned shaft. Our quaint old ballads tell us, that Robin Hood marked out the spot he chose for his grave with one of his cloth-yard shafts. The unerring arrow of the Parthians contributed to gain the battles of Alexander. Well has Le Brun depicted those mounted archers in their grim array of linked steel, fit type of the fatal weapons they bore. Yet none have drawn the bow with such fearful effect as the English yeoman: In the countless number of skirmishes which they had with the French, when in possession of a part of the Continent; on the fields of Cressy and Poictiers; on the borders of their own island, when the hardy Scots have made their inroads, the arrow of the Englishman has wrought a terrible vengeance. The Gascon Captain, Montluc, in his commentaries, bears witness to the skill of the English archers in his time, and the sharpness of their arrows; for he says upon one occasion he caught several shafts, that they shot at him, upon his target, and that they pierced quite through it! Why do not some of our correspondents give us an essay upon this once tremendous missile, of which nothing now remains but the name? Can there be a fitter subject for the pen of Pennie, or our Horace Guilford? We think not; and aware of our own inability, we leave the task to more able hands. The Note Book. ALPHA. HEREDITARY DESCENT OF MENTAL TALENT. FROM a number of facts, a few of which we shall select for the purpose of |