_The Fawkes's of York in the Sixteenth Century, including Notices of the
Early History of Guye Fawkes, the Gunpowder Plot Conspirator_, is the
title of a small volume written, it is understood, by a well-known and
accomplished antiquary resident in that city. The author has brought
together his facts in an agreeable manner, and deserves the rare credit
of being content to produce a work commensurate with the extent and
interest of his subject.
We learn from our able and well-informed contemporary, _The Athenæum_
that "one curious fact has already arisen out of the proposal for the
restoration of Chaucer's Monument,--which invests with a deeper interest
the present undertaking. One of the objections formerly urged against
taking steps to restore the perishing memorial of the Father of English
Poetry in Poets' Corner was, that it was not really his tomb, but a
monument erected to do honour to his memory a century and a half after
his death. An examination, however, of the tomb itself by competent
authorities has proved this objection to be unfounded:--inasmuch as
there can exist no doubt, we hear, from the difference of workmanship,
material, &c., that the altar tomb is the original tomb of Geoffrey
Chaucer,--and that instead of Nicholas Brigham having erected an
entirely new monument, he only added to that which then existed the
overhanging canopy, &c. So that the sympathy of Chaucer's admirers is
now invited to the restoration of what till now was really not known to
exist--_the original tomb_ of the Poet,--as well as to the additions
made to it by the affectionate remembrance of Nicholas Brigham."
Messrs. Ward and Co., of Belfast, announce the publication, to
subscribers only, of a new work in Chromo-Lithography, containing five
elaborately tinted plates printed in gold, silver, and colours, being
exact fac-similes of an _Ancient Irish Ecclesiastical Bell_, which is
supposed to have belonged to Saint Patrick and the four sides of the
jewelled shrine in which it is preserved, accompanied by a historical
and descriptive Essay by the Rev. William Reeves, D.D., M.R.I.A. By an
Irish inscription on the back of the case or shrine of the bell, which
Doctor Reeves has translated, he clearly proves that the case or shrine
was made in the end of the eleventh century, and that the bell itself is
several hundred years older; and also that it has {143} been in the
hands of the Mulhollands since the time the case or shrine was made;
that they bore the same name, and are frequently mentioned as custodians
of this bell in the "_Annals of the Four Masters_."
We have received the following Catalogues:--William Heath's, 29. Lincoln
Inn Fields, Select Catalogue, No. 4., of Second-Hand Books, perfect, and
in good condition. Thomas Cole's, 15. Great Turnstile, Catalogue of a
Strange Collection from the Library of a Curious Collector. John
Petheram's, 94. High Holborn, Catalogue of a Collection of British
(engraved) Portraits. Cornish's (Brothers), 37. New Street, Birmingham,
List No. IX. for 1850 of English and Foreign Books.
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