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MANSION AT PUNCKNOWLE, DORSETHIRE.

Mr. URBAN, Mere, May 18. I WONDER Hutchins, in describing the parish of Puncknowle, near Bridport, in Dorsetshire, said so little of the mansion-house. I had much gratification from inspecting it.

It stands on a knoll or eminence close to the church; and is a large building, of two distinct eras, somewhat in the form of the letter T: the more ancient part, or that which constituted the original house, forming the body of the letter; and a less ancient building, erected by the Napier family about the middle of the seventeenth century, and represented by my wood cut, making its head. These two parts are now separated; the former being inhabited by the occupier of the farm, and the latter being retained by Miss Frome, sister of the Rev. G. C. Frome, the present possessor of the manor. One of the upper rooms of this building is called the Painted Room, different subjects being painted in oil on the panels of the wainscoting; perhaps something like, though of a less ancient cha racter, the fresco paintings at Grovehouse, Woodford, described by A. J. K. in the Gentleman's Magazine for Nov. 1833. The paintings are executed by

a masterly though hasty pencil, and represent castles, quays, sea-pieces, landscapes, and other subjects of a character which induces me to refer them to the hand of a Dutch artist. The subject of one of them is Moses taken from the bulrushes; and that of another, I think, is the Tor-hill at Glastonbury; but perhaps the eye of a traveller might recognise several objects of continental scenery in the others. The panels of the drawingroom (lighted by the upper window on the right hand in the wood-cut) are also painted; each bearing a head or mask, of which I have engraved a specimen :

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The older part of the house now claims little attention from the antiquary, unless for its massy architecture, and its old hall wainscoted with oak. To the north side of the house, however, is attached a square projecting building, with an upper room, having a floor of square bricks, and once lighted by two round holes cut in square blocks of stone, which are worked into the side walls; and the tradition of the place states that it was a place of defence in the Cromwellian wars, and that the round holes were embrasures for cannon. This, however, could not be the case, as a stone in the front wall bears the inscription N.-R.A. K.-1663, showing that it was not built till two or three years after Cromwell's death. The mansion, moreover, was evidently never fortified; and that this particular portion was not built for defence is clear from the character of its masonry. Wood was carefully excluded in its construction, and I consider it to have been a malt kiln.

inhabitants of Bexington, an adjoining hamlet; and a low square tower.

In the transept is a mural monument to William Napier, Esq. above the cornice of which are the arms of Napier, and on the frieze is this inscription:

"Gulielmus Napier, armiger, nuper hujus ecclesiæ patronus."

Below this, on a tablet, is a fine old brass; representing the gentleman kneeling at a desk, in prayer, with the following inscription in black letter beneath him :

"Here lyeth William Napper, brother unto S Robert Napper, knyght, who after xvi yeres travell in forayne landes, married Anne Shelton, the daughter of William Shelton, of Onger parke in Esand now his sole beynge unto God, his sex, esquier, by whom he had vi sonnes ; bodye here resteth in Jesu Christ, beynge of the age of yeres, deceased the daye of Anno Domini 16 ." From the blanks for this gentleman's age, and the time of his death, it would seem that he had the brass en

In the churchyard is a cross, of graved in his lifetime; and that his

which I send you an engraving.

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executors or relations, with unbecoming inattention to his wishes, left it incomplete. Under the brass we read

"Prædictus Gulielmus Napper presentavit Gulielmum Carter, cler. ad hanc rectoriam xxv die Junii, Anno Domini 1597, legavit et x libras, in usum perpetuum pauperum ibidem."

A mural monument in the nave, with a circular pediment on two Corinthian pillars, was erected by Sir Robert Napier, in 1691, in memory of his father, his mother Ann, and his mother-in-law Catharine.

Near this monument is another, on a tablet under a circular pediment, for Sir Robert Napier, who died 1700, having on the top the arms of Napier, with the motto "Major Providentia Fato;" and underneath this odd though humble and christianly inscription.

« ΣΚΙΑΣ ΟΝΑΡ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ.” "NON MAGNA LOQUIMUR SED VIVIMUS.

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Sir C. Napier sold the Puncknowle estate to Wm. Clutterbuck, Esq. whose daughter Arundel married the Rer. Geo. Frome. He left two sons; George, the late Rector of Puncknowle, and Lord of the Manor, and Robert. Robert (not George, as stated by Hutchins) married Jane, sister to Mr. Butler; and had three children: George Clutterbuck, Arundel Mary, and Emilia (now deceased). George Clutterbuck Frome, now Rector of Puncknowle, and owner of the manor, married Mary Sophia, daughter of E. M. Pleydell, of Whatcombe House, Dorset, now deceased, by whom he has issue two daughters, Mary Sophia, and Elizabetha Arundel, now

minors.

MR. URBAN,

W. BARNES.

June 6.

AN anonymous but friendly correspondent has communicated to me a correction which will not be deemed unimportant.

In "Curiosities of Literature," (9th edit.) vol. V. p. 252, I have said, "The Protestant persists in falsely imputing to the Roman Catholic public formularies the systematic omission of the second Commandment." "Now what is the fact?" continues my cor

respondent. "The Roman Catholics have no authorised version of the Scriptures; and we know how averse they are to circulate them. In their Versions the second Commandment is either abridged or mutilated. In their Catechism Books it is often omitted, and the tenth divided to make up the number. This may be proved; and these are chiefly the books allowed to be circulated among the people. I have now on my table proofs of what I have asserted.' Thus far my anonymous friend-and I entirely subscribe to his statement. Though several years have elapsed since I composed this article on "Political Forgeries and Fictions," I perfectly recollect the occasion of my positive assertion.

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In

a conversation with the late Charles Butler, he assured me it was a calumny inflicted on the Romanists; for, he added, and I think showed them to me, "We have the Ten Commandments as well as yourselves,"

It is possible that that otherwise amiable Scholar might have concealed

the subterfuge, and practised on me that art of Jesuitism in which he was not inexpert.

THE AUTHOR OF CURIOSITIES
OF LITERATURE.

MR. URBAN, Temple, May 1. IN Article IV. of No. 3 of the Philological Museum for May 1832, on "Sir William Jones's division of the day," the three verses well remembered by every lawyer, and given in Sir Edward Coke's First Institute, are not stated from what source they were originally taken 1 have no doubt, however, that they were paraphrased from an old Greek Epigram.

The three lines are as follows :— Sex horas somno, totidem des legibus æquis, Quatuor orabis, des epulisque duas ; Quod superest ultrò sacris largire ca

monis.

They are quoted in Coke, I. Inst. 64 b; but it does not say whether that Great Oracle of the Law cited them from any other work, he merely calling them "Ancient Verses," or that he was himself the author of them. Although I am inclined to think the latter seems most probably to have been the case; as for example, in our day, Sir Walter Scott has given in many of his novels original verses, which he has therein feigned to be taken from an "Old Play."

The first and second lines may be thus rendered,

Six hours on sleep, bestow the like on law, Four hours to prayer, and two allot to meals.

The idea contained in which is most certainly derived from, or in other words, this couplet is a paraphrase of, a Greek epigram given in a work of Kircher, and likewise in the Anthologia.

Athanasius Kircher, in the Chapter "de Horologiis seu Sciathericis Veterum," observes-" notis literarum singularum Hore distinguebantur, ut testatum reliquit Athenæus sequenti epigrammato."

Εξ ὧραι μόχθους ἱκανώταται, αι τὲ μετ ̓ αυτὰς

Πράγμασι δεικνόμεναι, ΖΗΘΙ λέγουσι βροτοις.

And which he goes on to explain in this manner-" Sex horæ laboribus sufficiunt; sequentes negotiis desti

nuntur; ZHOI vero, id est, 7, 8, 9, 10, cœnales vocant. Ita ut A, B, г, id est, 1, 2, 3, laboribus; A, E, s, id est, 4, 5, 6, negotiis civilibus; Z, H, I, I, denique, id est, 7, 8, 9, 10 cœnali refectioni deputarentur." Athanasii Kircheri Edip. Egypt.) tom. II. pars. 2. cap. VIII. s. 2. p. 229. Edit. Roma. 1653.

Again, the same distich is given in the Anthologia, but with the following slight variation :

Ἐξ ὧραι μόχθοις ἱκανώταται· αἱ δέ μετ ̓ αυτὰς Γράμμασι δεικνύμεναι, ΖΗΘΙ λέγουσι βροτοις.

Vide Anthologia Græca, edit. Jacobs. Lipsiæ, 1804, tom. II. p. 292. n. 43.

This Epigram is thus translated into Latin, in the edition of the Anthologia, Interp. Eilhardo Lubino, p. 256. Lugd. Bat. 1604.

Sex horæ laboribus convenientissimæ. Post illas verò,

Literis demonstratæ, vive dicunt mortalibus.

Which lines, being interpreted, are— Six hours are most convenient for work. But after them, (The hours) marked by the letters (Z, H,

→, I,) say to mortals, (ZHOI) live.

It is scarcely necessary for me to remark that this distich, as contained in the Anthologia, possesses its chief point, or double signification, that is meant to be conveyed by ZHOI. The letters Z, H, O, I, as we learn from Kircher, designate the four hours7, 8, 9, 10, used on the ancient Greek time-pieces or sun-dials, and were set apart for refreshment * and amusement after work; which the letters them. selves tell us to do by the word ZHOI, i. e. live, or be merry. Whereas that quoted by the learned Kircher is not only difficult to be made sense of, but also loses the double force and point of ZHOI. The Anthologia states the epigram to be unknown as to its author, though Kircher ascribes it to Athenæus. Now it is clear, that if Sir Edward Coke was himself the author (which I have much cause to think)

This would seem almost to correspond with our present fashionable dinner-hours!

GENT. MAG. VOL. IV.

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Ten to the world allot, and all to Heaven! has rendered the division of the day § more useful and more religious, as well as the couplet more elegant. But it is perhaps superfluous to have substituted "all to heaven," instead of "four hours to prayer," as it is in the original, except for the rhyme; as I can conceive no pious man would spend four hours daily in prayer, who would not at the same time allot, whatsoever might be his employment, "all to Heaven:"-that is to say, that whatsoever he was doing, he would do it unto God, and make religion the guide of all his ways. King David, we remember, prayed three times a day, and thus sings—“ In the evening and morning, and at noon-day will I pray."

But I consider it to be the best maxim, and with which I will conclude this notice, that it matters little how often we pray, or how many hours we consume in prayer, if only we be ZAOEOI, truly religious, and have God always in all our thoughts; and continually, I will add, ZHOI év Xpiσtâ— live in Christ. Yours, &c. I. H.

The late Mr. Butler speaks of them as "the well-known verses of Lord Coke." § St. Ambrose (and I think, from his example, St. Augustine) divided every day into three tertias of employment: eight hours he spent in the necessities of nature and recreation: eight hours in charity and business; and the other eight hours he spent in study and prayer.See Jer. Taylor's Holy Dying, chap. 1. Sect. 3. s. 2.

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RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.

POEMS BY LUCIUS CARY, LORD FALKLAND.

"See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just."

THIS eulogy by Pope is founded on the splendid character given of this nobleman in the pages of Clarendon, and which Walpole's flippant and paradoxical censures can neither tarnish nor destroy. It is vain that this eccentric biographer accuses Falkland of debility of mind, superstition, moderate understanding, weakness, and lastly infatuation; we learn from a far higher and better authority-" that he was a person of such prodigious parts of learning and knowledge, of that inimitable sweetness, and delight in conversation, of so flowing and obliging a humanity, and goodness to mankind, and of that primitive simplicity and integrity of life, that if there were no other brand upon this odious and accursed civil war than that single loss, it must be most infamous and execrable to all posterity." Clarendon also expressly says of him" that he was a man of excellent parts, of a wit so sharp, and a ature so sincere, that nothing could be more lovely. That the most polite and accurate men of the University found in him such an immenseness of wit, and such a solidity of judgment, so infinite a fancy, bound in by a most logical ratiocination such a vast knowledge, that he was not ignorant of any thing, yet such an excessive humility, as if he had known nothing; that they frequently resorted, and dwelt with him, as in a College situated in a fairer air, so that his house was an University in a less volume, whither they came not so much for repose as study, and to examine and refine those grosser propositions which laziness and consent made current in vulgar conversation." In another place, Clarendon speaks of Lord Falkland's immense knowledge, his excellent understanding, and the wit and weight of his speeches. Now this is praise in solid and weighty ingots, and is not to be dissolved and melted away in the heat of Walpole's capricious imagination; for it is not only very exalted, but it is precise; † delivered in chosen and appropriate language. As regards the change of his political life, we conceive that the same noble historian who has borne witness to the excellence of his private character, has, in a few words, explained it to all candid judges of human conduct. When placed in very perplexing situations, and where the exact road of duty was difficult to discover and to keep, and where right motives were often pushed into wrong conclusions, and when the furious violence of faction had shattered, or severed the constitutional chain that bound together the patriots who had rallied round the liberties of their country-placed as Lord Falkland was, in such a position, and allowing, as we have a right to allow from the best authority, that he was a man of wise and temperate judgment, of great constitutional knowledge, of high principles, and a noble sense of duty and religion-we say that the reasons which Lord Clarendon has given for his conduct, are such as to remove from him the blame and suspicion that Walpole too unguardedly, and even coarsely, heaps upon him. But it is time to turn from such discussions, for our purpose is to consider Lord Falkland not as a politician, but as a poet; a character in which we believe he is but little known; and we confess that we shall be disappointed if his poetry, though thrown out on casual hints, and being, as it were, only the off-flowering of his deeper studies, does not convey to

*See Walpole's Noble Authors, and Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, and Life; Lloyd's State Worthies, vol. ii. p. 256; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England; Cibber's Lives of the Poets, &c. for an account of Lord Falkland. Lloyd calls hima knowing Statesman and a learned Scholar."

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+ Granger says, that the character of Lord Falkland, by Clarendon, appears to be ken from near and repeated views.

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