his gallantry by a splendid monument and the following lines, which Browne Wallis copied, and Mr. Lysons (whose account I had overlooked) has quoted from Mr. Willis's papers.

tiquarius" may be able to afford some information. At present I find mention made in direct terms of only one of them, his paternal seat at Burston, in the parish of Aston Abbots, about three miles from Quarrendon

may probably not long remain doubtful; for such is the condition of the Chapel, that, if a few pigs should chance to stray amongst the ruins, as well as "sheep and oxen, and all the beasts of the field," which have free access to it, they may anticipate the researches of the curious and the learned, by unceremoniously opening the hallowed depository of so much valour and beauty!

Whether any other individuals belonging to the Lee family, besides those enumerated in the preceding communications, were buried at Quarrendon, I have not been able to ascertain. Report says that sepulchral stones have been removed, with the rest of the pavement, to make a cel lar in a neighbouring farm-house; and it is certain that at least one has been converted into a hearth-stone in a cottage near the spot; for the marks of the brasses once inserted in it, are still visible but further this deponent saith not!

-:

Of the Hospital, alluded to in the inscription, it has been already said that there are no remains: but near the South side of the Chapel, a large piece of meadow, perhaps two acres in extent, is enclosed with banks, which give it the appearance of having been once moated round.

Mr. Lysons says, that "the antient seat was pulled down in the early part of the last century; and here may have been the site of it. Where were situated the "four goodly mansions" which Sir Henry Lee built, as recorded on the monument, perhaps "An

in which Sir Anthony Lee resided, who was knight of the shire, and father of Sir Henry, is said to have been nearly rebuilt by the latter, but been since demolished, excepting a left incomplete at his death, and has portion of the lower part of the walls, which may be still traced in the offices and garden belonging to a farm house, of late years erected with the materials of the old mansion, and in which a square stone window-case, with mullions, on the South side towards the East end, is also observable as a relick of the former building.

It may be remarked that, if the Knight displayed no better taste in architecture than he seems to have done in the choice of situation, it is not at all surprising that those labours of his life have been suffered to fall into decay, and to moulder with his bones. Burston house was built, if not in the very worst situation, certainly in almost the very worst, which could have been selected in the whole neighbourhoud. It is buried in a valley, without possessing one single imaginable advantage by being so placed, and excluded from the enjoyment of a fine prospect, which even many parts of that valley command, by being hidden close behind a finely swelling hill, whence numerous cheerful and interesting objects, and much pleasing rural scenery, are discernible. It may, however, have been some excuse for such an oversight, if the foundations of the original mansion were regarded as the boundaries or limits of the plan for its re-erection; or if early recollections, much more if filial piety, had any influence in determining the choice of the site. Were neither of these the case, the old Knight must surely have been blinded by love!

Besides the house at Burston, it is probable that another of the works alluded to might be the mansion at Weedon, formerly the jointured residence of Anne Countess of Lindsey, who was the relict of Sir Francis Lee, and died in 1709: which house having Quarrendon Chapel, and great

part

part of the Vale of Aylesbury, in view from its principal front, occupied the site of Lillies, now the seat of the Lord George Grenville, Baron Nugent, being part of the estate which was sold by Lord Dillon in 1801 to George Nugent Grenville Temple, late Marquis of Buckingham.

In addition to the particulars before communicated, it may not be improper to remark, that Margaret the Lady of Sir Anthony Lee, is represented on the monument in a close bead-dress, with a circlet or bandeau of gold richly ornamented with pearls: a chain necklace with square links, and a jewel pendent from it: the gown close, with long stays or body, and a gold chain, also with square links, by way of girdle; and an oval ornament as large as a modern watch (perhaps an etwee case) hanging as low as the knee.

This lady is called on the tablet belonging to her son Sir Henry's monument (for excepting the word Margery, nearly the whole of the inscription upon her own tomb is illegible) "Dame Margaret the daughter to SIR HENRY WIAT *, that faithful and constant servant and counsellor to two Kings, Henry VII. and VIII. &c.; and it is remarkable that in the Declaration circulated by Perkin Warbeck, when with the Scottish forces he entered Northumberland to claim the Crown, the name of Henry Wyat is mentioned as one of King Henry the Seventh's especial favourites and advisers. [See Lord Bacon's History of the reign of that Monarch, in which the Manifesto is reported to be copied from the Cottonian MSS.]

A coat of arms on a shield of white stone, apparently more modern than the rest of the decorations of the monument, was in my former account stated to be" the paternal coat of Lee (Argent a fess between 3 crescents Sable), impaling, probably, Wy

at."

The figures on the sinister side, which, partly from their obscurity, and perhaps partly from my own inexperience, I could not decypher, appear, on a more careful inspection, to be a pair of very antient and uncouth pincers, the blades open by a spring.

* Rd. Wyatt, esq. occurs Sheriff of Bucks in 1410, 1416, and 1424; probably of the same family.

The effigy of Sir Anthony Lee lies on a roll of mat; which also supports his head. The head of the lady reposes on cushions, or pillows, very well executed.

Holinshed relates, that in a great storm, which happened in 1570, Sir Henry Lee is said to have lost 3000 sheep at Quarrendon, besides other cattle. It is probable that, at that period, the number of sheep kept there might be more considerable in proportion to heavier stock than of late years; and Drayton, after mentioning the glebe and pasturage of the Vale of Aylesbury, adds, "That as her grain and grass, so she her sheep doth breed

For burden, and for bone, all others that Polyolbion.

exceed!"

The only dates remaining upon the monuments are those of 1573, the period of the expedition into Scotland (the 16th of Elizabeth), and 1611, when it is presumed that Sir Henry Lee died. It is recorded that he attained the age of fourscore, so that, according to the above account, he must have been at the time of the storm in the vigour of life, and perhaps engaged in attendance upon the court or the wars. May it not therefore be supposed that the re-building of the Chapel by this personage had been rendered necessary by the destructive effects of that calamity? for Sir Anthony, his father, having died about the year 1550, it is unreasonable to imagine that his monument (if he had any before the rebuilding of the Chapel) had become decayed in the short space of twenty years, or that he was buried in a mere heap of ruins, although I can meet with no other account of the storm than that which has been already cited.

The original Chapel is said to have been founded about the year 1392, by John Farnham, and dedicated to St. Peter. It was a Chapelof-Ease to the Vicarage of Bierton, being in the Hundred of Aylesbury and Deanery of Wendover.

The manor of Quarrendon was, according to Holinshed, part of the antient possessions of the Fitz Johns, and came by a female heir to the Beauchamps. This account carries us no higher than to the reign of Henry III. Whether it were in earlier times in the hands of the Bolebecs, can only be conjectured; but

there

there are some remains of an antient road Eastward of Buryfield, the so much celebrated piece of rich pasturage noticed by Antiquarius, which still retain the appellation of Bullbeck Gate, and from their vicinity to other considerable estates of that opulent and powerful family, seem to afford some show of probability in support of such an opinion. It is more certain that, on the attainder of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, it was granted, in 1397, to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, who also suffering attainder soon afterwards, it reverted to the Crown, and in 1512 was granted to Robert Lee, esq. who was a descendant from the younger branch of the Lees of Lea, in Cheshire, [Benedict, fifth son of John, by Elizabeth, his wife, the daughter of Wood, of Warwickshire, in temp. Edw. III.; for which I am obliged and indebted to your respectable Correspondent the" Octogenarian"] seated at Quarrendon "as early as the year 1460, and who had been, for some time, lessees under the Crown."

Sir Henry Lee's qualifications as a Statesman, or rather'a Courtier, seem to have resembled those of his fatherin-law, William Lord Paget, who, like him, also enjoyed the confidence of four succeeding princes, Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. By what compass the latter Nobleman steered so safe a course through the dangerous commotions which agitated both Church and State in those eventful reigns, may perhaps be gathered from the axioms of his common-place book, now in the possession of his descendant Lord Boston, which thus concludes:

66 Fly the courte.
Speke little.
Care less.
Devise nothing.
Never earnest.
In answer cold.
Lerne to spare.
Spend in measure.
Care for home.
Pray often.

Live better.
And dye well."

Nor were such instances of "ser

pentine prudence," or "columbine simplicity," as Smythe calls them in his History of the Berkeley family, very rare; for, in the character which

that writer has drawn of another great Courtier, he tells us that "he received like honours and favours from those four kings, Henry VI., Edward IV., Richard III., and Henry VII., as opposite and discordant among themselves as man might be to man." To be a willow, and not an oak," was the axiom of Sir William Powlet, first Marquis of Winchester, who also lived and flourished under many Princes of very opposite characters; and, as we have very high authority for saying that there is nothing new under the sun, so we shall perhaps find that Prince Talleyrand, and other modern courtiers, have only possessed themselves of the same clue which conducted these departed Worthies through slippery paths, with honour, safety, and renown.

The rewards Sir Henry Lee received from his Sovereigns have been before mentioned in later days his descendant, Sir Edward Henry, was created Viscount Quarrendon, and Earl of Litchfield, in 1674, which titles becoming extinct on the decease of George Henry, the last heir male of that family, who was Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and died in 1776, the manor and estate descended to their representative, Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee, Lord Viscount Dillon in Ireland, by whom, in the year 1802, it was sold to James Duprè, Esq. of Whitton Park, the present possessor.

Quarrendon is stated, in the Agricultural Survey of the County of Bucks, to contain 1500 acres of land, of which only 7 or 8 are in arable, and the remainder in pasturage, or meadow. The number of farm houses 5, of cottages 4, and of inhabitants 55. The average of rents from 40 to 60s. per acre; the whole parish tithe free. The soil is in general a deep rich clay, extremely fertile and productive; and the experience of agriculturists leads them to prefer grazing and feeding oxen, to keeping a dairy of cows. The parish maintains its own poor distinctly from Bierton, to which the Chapel here only was formerly appendant.

It is bounded on the North by Hardwick, on the East by Bierton and Aylesbury, on the South by Aylesbury and Stone, and on the Southwest and West by Fleet Marston, being separated from the latter by a

brook

brook which is formed by the union of several rivulets from the North West, North,and East (whose divided streams isolate some of the rich pastures, and in wet seasons, by overflowing their banks, perform a sort of natural irrigation), and runs South West in a tortuous course near Eythrop and Winchendon, until, on the verge of the county, it is dignified with the title

of the River Thame.

The turnpike road leading from Aylesbury to Bicester in Oxford shire, runs along the border of a portion of the parish of Quarrendon on the South; and is supposed to occupy the track of a vicinal way; which has been often erroneously taken for the Akemau-street, with the course of which, as the Bp. of Cloyne observes, [Lysons, Mag. Brit. vol. I. p. 484,] it by no means agrees. The line of that vicinal way, however, by whatsoever name it may have been originally called, as laid down in the best maps, appears to have been broken, and no traces of it preserved, from about a mile and half Eastward of Aylesbury, to the distance of more than three miles Westward of that town, in the direction of Quarrendon and Fleet Marston. Near the last named place the present road makes a sudden flexure; but whether the antient way ran to the Northward of it, can only be conjectured. In that case it must have passed near the site of Quarrendon Chapel; and the old track from Aylesbury to Buckingham, which unquestionably left Hardwick, and the modern line of the turnpike through Winslow, on the right hand, and passed through Claydon, might have branched off from this vicinal way, and have intersected the Vale of Aylesbury very near the spot beforementioned, which is still called Bullbank [Bolebec] Gate. The Roman remains in this part of the kingdom are but few, and the materials for its antient history very scanty; but an attentive examination of the features of the country, even at this distant period, would, I am persuaded, throw much light upon the very imperfect accounts of it which have hitherto appeared, and remove many of the doubts which have been entertained respecting its condition in early times. Unfortunately, those who possess genius enough to qualify them for such researches are often deficient in in

4

dustry, and those who have sufficient learning are not always impartial. The bias of an Antiquary, and the prejudices of an Historian, are enemies alike to the discovery and to the preservation of Truth.

Mr. URBAN,

VIATOR.

Norwich, Dec. 17. R. HAWKINS, in a work intituled "An Inquiry into the Nature and Principles of Thorough Bass, on a New Plan," speaking of the Chromatic Scale of the Ancients, tells us, very properly, that their semitone, and then three together Chromatic Scale proceeded by one afterwards, and so on: and then proceeds as follows.

"Some have thought this term decertainly is, which they have, however, rived from the verb xpaw (chrao), as it most absurdly supposed to signify Coloro, to colour or tinge, a sense given to it on some other occasions; but in this etymology, as applied to the chromatic scale, there does not seem the smallest connexion or reason."

"That it is derived from the Greek verb xpaw, cannot be disputed, but it is for a better reason than those persons were able to suggest.

"Besides the sense which they have assigned to it, xpaw means also Seco, to cut, or divide; and from Seco comes our word section, which means a subdivision of a chapter or book."

"From Chambers's description, it is evident, that, while the diatonic proceeds by the semitone and whole tones: and the enharmonic by the semitone and ditones, or combination of two whole tones; the chromatic proceeds only by semitones; and, consequently, by smaller intervals, or sub-divisions, than the others, to which circumstance its name chromatic, as derived from the verb xpaw, in the sense of subdividing, most certainly was intended to refer."

Now, Mr. Urban, I shall first make a short observation on a sentence in the last confused paragraph on this subject.

Mr. Hawkins says "the chromatic proceeds only by semitones." I suppose he intended to inform us that the smallest interval in the Chromatic Scale, was what in loose language is called a semitone; whereas a person unacquainted with the Chromatic Scale, would suppose that the Chromatic Scale had no larger interval than a semitone; whereas it had a minor third. Thus B, C, C sharp, E, formed the tetracord.

How.

Mr. URBAN,

C. J. SMYTH.

Feb. 6.

THE writings of Lord Byron have

obtained for their author a preeminence of reputation, the justice of which not even the jealousy of rival bards has presumed to question. Reviewers of different parties, so often biassed, in other cases, by political opinion, have all conspired to eulogize him as the first of living Poets. In his works, however, (generally the productions of haste) several plagiarisms may be found, of which, no doubt, the author was unconsciousbut what person in these modern days can say any thing which was never said before? To point out all that he has borrowed from others, in his various writings, would be difficult and tedious; let us examine Lara, one of his most nervous pieces.

The following description in Canto I. line 155:

At the beginning of Canto II. is this reflexion:

"Man has another day to swell the past, And lead him near to little but his last; But mighty Nature bounds as from her birth, [earth; The sun is in the heavens, and life on

beam,

Flowers in the valley, splendour in the [stream. Health on the gale, and freshness in the Immortal man! behold her glories shine, And cry, exultingly, "they are thine!" Gaze on, while yet thy gladden'd eye [thee;

may see,

A morrow comes when they are not for And grieve what may above thy senseless bier, [tear; Nor earth nor sky will yield a single Nor cloud shall gather more, nor leaf shall fall,

Nor gale breathe forth one sigh for thee, for all."

In one of Pope's Letters to Steele is the same train of thought as in the above passage. He says,

"When I reflect what an inconsider

able little atom every single man is, with respect to the whole creation, me

thinks 'tis a shame to be concerned at

the removal of such a trivial animal as I am.

The morning after my exit, the sun will rise as bright as ever, the flowers smell as sweet, the plants spring as green, the world will proceed in its old course," &c.-Pope's Works, vol. VIII.

In Canto II. line 714, this passage: "He bled, and fell; but not with deadly wound, [ground. Stretch'd by a dextrous sleight along the "Demand thy life!" He answer'd not; and then [again, From that red floor he ne'er had risen For Lara's brow upon the moment grew Almost to blackness in its demon hue; And fiercer shook his angry falchion now, Than when his foe's was levell'd at his brow;"

bears so strong a resemblance-to the following, in "The Mysteries of Udolpho," that the one must have been suggested by the other:

"The Count then fell back into the arms of his servant, while Montoni held bis sword over him, and bade bim ask

"How deep yon azure dies the sky! Where orbs of gold unnumber'd lie; The slumb'ring breeze forgets to breathe, The lake is smooth and clear beneath, Where once again the spangled show Descends to meet our eyes below." Night-piece on Deuth. GENT. MAG. February, 1818.

almost to blackness as he gazed upon his fallen adversary."

Mysteries of Udolpho, vol. II. In Canto II. line 1015, is this couplet: "Cheers Lara's voice, and waves or strikes his steel,

Inspiring hope,himself had ceas'd to feel;" which