INDEX TO THE EIGHTEENTH VOLUME.

INDEX TO THE ENGRAVINGS.

WROXTON ABBEY, OXFORDSHIRE.

The stately homes of England,

How beautiful they stand
Amidst their tall ancestral trees,

O'er all the pleasant laud.

The deer across their greensward bound
Through shade and sunny gleam,

And the swan glides past them with the sound
Of some rejoicing stream.-HEMANS.

WE have, on one or two occasions, presented the reader with copies of some of the admirable engravings contained in Mr. Nash's Mansions of England in the Olden Time. The appearance of a second series of that work, and the permission of the publisher to present a view from it in our present Number, offers an opportunity for our again expressing the opinion which we have formed of it.

The idea of presenting views of the mansions of the nobility and gentry in various parts of England, is by no means a new one; for many of our artists and engravers have, at different times, and to different extent, followed up such a plan. We may particularly allude to Mr. Neale's elegant work, entitled Views of Seats, which extends to ten or twelve volumes, and contains representations and descriptions of a very large number of mansions. But still something else was wanted; some other feature was looked for, which might carry the imagination back to old times, when, from the peculiar usages and customs of the age, the English gentry were wont to dwell more in the midst of their tenantry and dependents than they are enabled to do at the present day. This is not the place to discuss why it is that such changes occur, during the lapse of time; but certain it is, that the home of an English country gentleman, in the reign of "good Queen Bess," of the Jameses, and the Charleses, presented marked and characteristic features: our authors may describe these characteristic features, and do all that the pen can effect in presenting them to the mind; but the aid of the painter is wanting to produce the full effect.

miles from Oxford, and seventy-three from London, and contains between five and six thousand inhabitar. This place is supposed to have been occupied by the Romans, from the discovery of some Roman coins and a Roman altar there. About the year 1153, a castle was built here by Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, which continued an episcopal residence till the first year of the reign of Edward the Sixth; and is said to have contained a dreary dungeon for convicts. During the wars of the Roses, the neighbourhood of Banbury was the scene of frequent conflicts, of which the most disastrous was the battle of Banbury, fought in 1469, on a plain called Danesmore, near Edgecote, a village about three miles distant, between the Earl of Warwick on the one side, and the Earls of Pembroke and Stafford on the other; which ended in the defeat of the Yorkists. The town was again the seat of contention, during the civil wars of the Commonwealth. The inhabitants espoused the cause of the Parliament; but the town was taken by the Royalists after the battle of Edgehill, and defended by Sir William Compton, against Colonel Fiennes, for thirteen weeks, till the garrison was relieved by the Earl of Northampton. It was afterwards besieged for several weeks by Colonel Whalley, and surrendered on honourable terms.

The town of Banbury is pleasantly situated in a fertile valley, on the banks of the small river Charwell. The houses are well built, and the streets are lighted with gas. The chief manufactures of the town are cheese, of which a large quantity of superior quality is made, and the celebrated "Banbury cakes;" formerly there was an extensive manufacture of plush, shag, and girth webbing; but this has greatly declined. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a spacious structure, erected under the authority of an act of Parliament, obtained in 1790. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Oxford, rated in the king's books at 221. Os. 2d., endowed with 2007. private benefaction, 400l. royal bounty, and 6007. parliamentary grant. Among the places for education are a blue-coat school, established by subscription in 1705, and endowed with Now this brings us to the nature and object of Mr. property to the amount of 807. per annum: this school Nash's work. He does not merely represent cold exte- was, in 1807, incorporated with a national school, to riors of large mansions; he carries the spectator within which a Sunday-school has been since attached. Fordoors, and peoples the halls, the saloons, the libraries, merly, there was a free grammar-school here, which was with inmates, habited as they were wont to be in the held in such high estimation, that the statutes of Saint times of which we have spoken. His plan has been, to Paul's School, London, are said to have been drawn up visit such old mansions as present the most striking ex- on the model of those of Banbury School. One of the amples of the "Elizabethan" style of architecture, and masters, Mr. Stanbridge, was tutor to the celebrated Sir as have suffered the smallest degree of change by repair; Thomas Pope; and so great was the reputation which to select some portion of each building, of the most pic- this institution had acquired, that the statutes of the free turesque kind; to furnish it (if, as is usual, it be an in-grammar-school at Manchester, dated 1524, ordain that terior) with such decorations, furniture, and implements, as were likely to be found in it in times long gone by; to give vividness to the scene by introducing imaginary figures, habited strictly in accordance with the era chosen; and to represent those figures as being employed in such avocations as will illustrate the domestic arrangements and the domestic sports of "merry England," two or three centuries ago. Such was the plan proposed; and the mode of execution is so admirable, that a second series of similar views was speedily called for. This second series is now before us; and from it we select a view of Wroxton Abbey, Oxfordshire, respecting which, we will give a few descriptive and historical details.

Wroxton Abbey is situated in the parish of Wroxton, near Banbury, in Oxfordshire. We will say a few words respecting Banbury, before we visit the Abbey itself.

If we look at a map of Oxfordshire, we find that the northern portion is very narrow, not above eight or ten miles in breadth. At the eastern border of this narrow district, is the town of Banbury, on the river Charwell; and proceeding westward from Banbury, we come to Wroxton Abbey, at a distance of about two miles.

Banbury is a considerable market town, twenty-two

the grammar be there taught "after the manner of the school at Banbury, in Oxfordshire, which is called Stanbridge grammar.'

In proceeding from Banbury to Wroxton Abbey, which is about two miles westward of it, we pass through the small parish of Drayton, possessed by the noble houses of Guilford and Dorset. It once contained a mansion occupied by the Greville family, but this has been long in an uninhabitable state as a mansion, though we believe a portion of it has been repaired and fitted up as a poor-house. The church of Drayton is a simple unimposing structure, principally remarkable for the tombs and relics of the noble personages who once resided in the neighbourhood.

The parish of Wroxton, in which the abbey is situated, contains only about eight hundred inhabitants. The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry and diocese of Oxford, and m the patronage of the Marquis of Bute. The church is dedicated to All Saints, and contains monuments to two or three of the Earls of Guilford, to several other members of that family, to the first Earl of Donne, and to other distinguished personages.

Wroxton Abbey would seem, from its name, to be

A

rather an ecclesiastical structure than a private mansion; but the truth is that an abbey formerly occupied the spot, and a portion of it has been built into or included in the present mansion, which retains the old name. priory of canons regular of St. Augustin was founded here in the reign of Henry the Third, and valued at 781.138.4 d. The buildings of this priory were destroyed by fire, and the present mansion was built on its site.

The estate came into the family of the Norths by the marriage of Francis, Lord Keeper Guilford, with Lady Frances Pope, sister of fourth and last Earl of Donne. The greater part of the present structure was erected by Sir William Pope, afterwards Earl of Donne, in the year 1618. The building is of an ornamental and interesting character, though it was not completed according to the original design, as an intended wing on the south side was never commenced. The Lord Keeper made some additions, and the late Earl of Guilford erected an elegant library, after a plan by Smirke. The chapel is a fine room, beautified by the first Earl of Guilford. Among the pictures deposited in this mansion are many ancient portraits of the families of North and Pope. Among the latter is an original of Sir Thomas Pope, founder of Trinity College, Oxford, and uncle of the first Earl of Donue. Of the Norths there is a complete series of portraits, from Edward, the first lord, created in the reign of Philip and Mary, to the present Earl of Guilford. "The whole of Wroxton Priory," says Mr. Brewer, "is creditable to the taste of the noble owner. Every improvement introduced (and many have been effected) is rendered subservient to the ancient baronial character of the edifice. The gardens and pleasuregrounds will be viewed with particular interest, as no innovating hand has robbed them of their monastic fea

tures."

The only remains of the original abbey (or priory, as it would seem to be more correctly called) are an arch, which was probably a door of entrance, and a small tion of the passages, communicating with offices in the lower division of the building.

por

HUNGARY WATER.

Doctors or Teachers they of Physick are,
(Whether by pen they do it, or in chair
With lively voyce,) that teach the way to know
Man's nature, health, and sickness, and do show
Diseases, cause, and cure: but they who spend
Their life in visits, and whose labours end
In taking fees and giving paper scrowls,
Factors of physick are, and none but owls
J'o court such doctors, that no Latin know,

From whence that name did to our language flow.

THUS wrote William Rowland, the coadjutor of Culpeand from the tone of satire in which the lines are written, per in some of his numerous works on medical subjects; the reader would naturally suppose that this Rowland was a genuine "doctor," and not a mere "factor of physick." Yet we are tempted to smile when we see what were the ideas of such men respecting the effects of medicines on the human body, and how strangely they almost any simple herb,-rosemary for instance,-we mixed up astrology with the medical art. If we select shall find that they attribute to it virtues which would very much gladden the hearts of invalids, could we only believe them to be true. Rosemary, Culpeper tells us, swimming of the head, drowsiness, stupidity, dumb will cure, or at least "help" cold diseases, rheum, palsy, lethargy, falling sickness, tooth-ache, bad breath, weak memory, dim sight, yellow jaundice, pestilence, cough, ptisick, consumption, benumbed joints, and a host of other personal evils, both internal and external. He also informs us that "the sun claims privilege to it, and it is under the celestial Ram."

These whimsicalities would be calculated merely to disposed, by the perusal of the works, or the popular amuse, were it not that uneducated persons are often dissemination of the opinions, of such men as Culpeper comparative state of medical knowledge in past and and Rowland, to form a very erroneous estimate of the present times. The reputed properties of any particular herb or medicament, however astounding they may be, are laid down by our old herbalists in such positive and undoubted terms, that many readers fear it would be a kind of presumption to doubt the truth of what is

Mr. Nash has, in one picture, represented the porch of Wroxton Abbey, which is an elegant specimen of the Italian decorated entrances, so frequently attached to asserted. This is an evil, since it is difficult, and often buildings of this date. Another plate is devoted to the hall. This hall is handsome, though plain, and is reimpossible, to bring the mind into a fit state for the reception of truths recently discovered, if it is pre-occupied markable for the screen, which is richly carved and supported on columns, leaving the space beneath the music-which are, principally on that account, eagerly caught up by doctrines which partake of the marvellous, and gallery open. The pendant in the centre of the ceiling is likewise a curious feature, and has a light and elegant effect. The stags' heads introduced into the wall are also peculiar and striking ornaments.

JEOPARD not the loss of many things for the gain of one thing; neither adventure the loss of one thing certain for many things doubtful.-SIR THOMAS SMITH.

THE heart may be sad, without the eye being wet.-LOVER.

ADVERSITY is like the period of the former and of the latter rain, cold, comfortless, unfriendly to man and to animal; yet from that season have their birth, the flower, and the fruit, the date, the rose, and the pomegranate.-SIR WALTER SCOTT.

AFFLICTION appears to be the guide to reflection; the teacher

of humility; the parent of repentance; the nurse of faith; the strengthener of patience, and the promoter of charity: while of those upon whom affliction is thus sanctified to the purifying of the soul, and its improvement in Christian graces; of those, who study to convert it with the blessing of their merciful Father, to their spiritual and eternal welfare, that they "may become partakers of his holiness;" of those who welcome it as the means whereby they may "learn the statutes" of the Lord: of such persons it may be truly affirmed, as the royal Psalmist acknowledged of himself, that "it is good for them to be afflicted."-BISHOP MANT.

by the multitude.

We could easily collect numerous examples of medicinal herbs, which are now used for the most simple purposes only, but which were once lauded for curative properties almost innumerable. Some preparations, formerly much vaunted, are now utterly unknown, while others, although still admitted into the healing art, occupy a far humbler station than that which they once filled. There is a curious history respecting the subject of HUNGARY WATER, a preparation from Rosemary, which will illustrate some of the remarks offered above, and will show that persons moving even in the highest circles were once not exempt from the belief in medicines and remedies of a marvellous character.

Hungary water is spirit of wine distilled upon rosemary, and therefore imbued with its oily and strongly scented essence. It used to be brought principally fr m France, particularly from Beaucaire, Montpellier, and other places in Languedoc, where rosemary grew in great abundance. The name by which it is known,—— l'Eau de la reine d'Hongrie,-seems to imply that it was first known or used in Hungary, and such appears on investigation to have been the case. Several books are been written on the subject, in which it is stated that the receipt for making this medicine was given to queen of Hungary by a hermit, (some say by an an el, who appeared to her in a garden, all entrance to which was shut. One writer says that this queen was Queen

St. Isabela, but another states it to nave been Elizabeth, wife of Charles Robert, king of Hungary, daughter of Uladislaus II., king of Poland, and he goes on to say, that by often washing with this spirit of rosemary, she was cured of gout and lameness, at the age of seventy years; that she lived to the age of eighty, and became again so renovated in youth and beauty, through the effects of this wonderful preparation, that she was admired by the king of Poland at that time, who was then a widower, and who wished to make her his second wife. Many indistinct allusions were made by different writers to a book, or breviary, containing a receipt, written by the queen of Hungary, in letters of gold, for the preparation of this famous medicine. But the first clear account of it was given by John Prevot, in a medical work published about two centuries ago. The substance of his information on this point was as follows:In the year 1606, Prevot happened to see, among the books of Francis Podacather,—a man of noble family with whom he was intimate,-a very old breviary, which Podacather held in high veneration. This breviary had been given by Elizabeth, queen of Hungary, to one of the ancestors of Podacather, as a testimony of the friendship that existed between them; and at the beginning of it is the following entry, in the queen's own hand:I, Elizabeth, queen of Hungary, being very infirm, and much troubled with the gout, in the seventy-second year of my age, used for a year this receipt, given to me by an ancient hermit, whom I never saw before nor since, and was not only cured, but recovered my strength, and appeared to all so remarkably beautiful, that the king of Poland asked me in marriage, he being a widower and I a widow. I, however, refused him for the love of my Lord Jesus Christ, from one of whose angels I believe I received the remedy. The receipt is as follows:

Take of aqua vitæ, four times distilled, three parts, and of the tops and flowers of rosemary two parts: put these toge. ther in a close vessel: let them stand in a gentle. heat fifty hours, and then distil them. Take one dram of this in the morning, either in your food or drink, and let your face and the diseased limb be washed with it every morning.

It renovates the strength, brightens the spirits, purifies the marrow and nerves, restores and preserves the sight, and prolongs life.

If we were to judge of this strange document, taking the tone of modern opinion as a standard, we should be inclined to doubt its authenticity; but when we consider the character of the times (about the year 1380), and the allusions made to it by so many writers, we may admit its truth, by supposing the queen to have been a woman of a vain and rather weak mind.

The time has now gone by when Hungary water was deemed a specific against severe diseases; and it has taken its rank among the simpler preparations from vegetable bodies. In preparing this liquid, the leaves and tops of the rosemary yield their fragrance, in a great degree, to the ardent spirit, leaving behind the greatest share both of their flavour and pungency. The mode of preparing it usually adopted is, by distilling one gallon of proof spirit of wine, in which a pound and a half of fresh rosemary-tops have been placed. In order to make it in perfection, the spirit must be very pure, and the leaves at their full growth, gathered without bruising. If the flowers are suspended in the retort, and a gentle heat applied, just sufficient to raise the spirit in the form of vapour, this vapour, by lightly percolating through them, is said thereby to increase the fragrance. The custom used to be, in order to produce Hungary water of the finest kind, to distil the spirit several times with the rosemary; but the commoner sorts were often nothing more than cheap brandy, with a little of the essence or the oil of rosemary added to it.

Hungary water is now regarded as nothing more than an agreeable perfume, possessing nearly the same qualities as the simple herb from which it is produced. The wondrous properties attributed to this liquid by the queen of Hungary, as well as the equally marvellous virtues attributed to rosemary itself by the herbalists, are now known to have had their chief foundation in the operation of the human mind. The gradual developement of truth makes sad havoc in glowing and highlycoloured descriptions, whether of medicinal cures or of any other subject in which the public is deeply interested.

An article has appeared in some of the daily journals, in which the volcano of Kirauch, (there called Kireca,) in the island of Hawaii, or Owhy hee, is spoken of as a newly formed crater. It was, however, visited many years since by Mr. Ellis; and the following account given by Mr. Douglas, corresponds so closely with its present state, as recently laid before the Geographical Society, that it may not be uninteresting to our readers.

THE VOLCANO OF OWHYHEE.

THE late Mr. Douglas, who visited Kiraueh in 1833, has described the scene presented by the interior of its crater as singularly awful and magnificent. He descended to a ledge at the depth of 1062 feet in this fearful pit; where a space about five miles in diameter, was covered with lava, the whole of which had apparently been recently in a state of fusion, though some portion was at that period hardened. This igneous mass appeared, in the process of cooling, to have been rent into pieces of every form and size, from gigantic rolls, like enormous cables, to the finest threads. Over this part of the pit were dispersed numerous small cones, or chimneys, which continually emitted smoke; and besides these little cones there were three remarkable pyramidal masses, measuring about 900 feet at the base, and being from 20 to 25 feet in height. These cones had lateral openings, like the doors of a baker's oven, to which they altogether bore a close resemblance. By kneeling down on the ledge it was possible to peep into these openings, and to witness "a terrific vacuity, a red-hot atmosphere," varied only by the occasional ejection of volcanic matter through a lateral opening. The remaining portion of this pit consisted of two lakes of liquid lava: one about 900 feet in diameter, and the other above 3000 feet in length, and nearly 2000 feet in width. Both these lakes of fire flowed in a continued stream towards the south end of the pit, at which point was exhibited one of the most appalling and in furious ebullition, rolling and tumbling in fiery waves, magnificent spectacles in nature,—a vast cauldron of lava, sometimes spouting up to the height of 60 or 70 feet, and rapidly hurrying along, until it precipitated itself through an arch about 400 feet in width, and 40 feet in height, into a yawning chasm of unknown depth. From this tremendous, but unseen, laboratory of nature, immense masses were thrown back with great violence, and literally spun pro-wind in all directions. The sound issuing from this archinto minute glass-like filaments, which were carried by the

An account of the mode of preparing Hungary water was published by Zapata, in 1586, in his Mirabilia, seu Secreta Medico-Chirurgica. The writer commences by alluding to the wonderful cures performed on one Anaxagoras by the use of this Hungary water, and then describes the mode in which it was prepared by Arnold of Villa Nova: "Take some good must, such as yields a ley of his own accord, before the grapes are bruised. Put it into a vessel, and add the sprouts and leaves of rosemary, of each ten parts; and when it has steeped in spirit, let it be shut up in a perforated vessel, in order that it may effervesce, and extract the virtues of the rosemary. When the process has been thus far conducted, let some more must and rosemary be put into a glass cucurbit, and distilled five times: when it boils let the result of the fifth distillation be drawn out; and after it shall have been distilled in the other vessel of must and rosemary, (in which fermentation has been going on,) both are to be added together. Then add a small quantity of the fifth distillation, or quintessence, so that the must may be developed from it more frequently and efficaciously. . . . ." It must be confessed that a modern practitioner would be somewhat perplexed to have to duce Hungary water by such a description as this.

*This was a book which treated of "the wonders or secrets of the medical and surgical profession,"

way baffles all description: "that of the whole steam-engines in the world," says Mr. Douglas, "would be a whisper to it."-MISS ZORNLIN's Recreations in Physical Geography.