f these is a second poem, written in etters of silver, also by Theodulph,84 concluding:

Codicis hujus opus struxit Theodulphus,

amore

Illius hic cujus Lex benedicta tonat; Nam foris hoc geminis, auro splendescit

et ostro, Splendidiore tamen in tuo honore micat. (8.) The Bible preserved in the library of the church of Puy Nôtre Dame, in Anjou, supposed to have been presented by Theodulph, and, from its contents evidently a contemporary copy of the one last described.85 (9.) The Bible in the abbey of St. Germain des Près, written in the year 809, containing the sacred books from Isaiah to the Apocalypse inclusive.86 This was also made use of in the Benedictine edition of the Vulgate, published in 1693.

These are doubtless the most celebrated and splendid copies of the entire Bible now remaining in the libraries of Europe, yet if the space would permit, I could increase the list by describing several other Bibles, less remarkable, of earlier and later date, such for instance as (10.) the very ancient Bible in the Vatican, numbered 1209. written in uncials, of which a specimen is given by Blanchini, Evangl. Quadr. i. Dlxvi.; (11.) the Bible in the abbey of Marmoutier, ascribed to the seventh century, written in uncials and minuscules ;87 (12.) the Bible at Toledo, certainly written before the year 990, a collation of which was printed by Blanchini;88 (13.) the Bible at Carcasson, of the eighth or ninth century, used by the Benedictines in their edi

84 Sirmondi Opp. ii. 1052.

tion of the Vulgate; (14.) the Bible in the Bibliothèque du Roi, No. 3. of the ninth century, given by Anowaretha to the monastery of St. Maur sur Loire, in Anjou ;89 (15.) the Bible in the same library, No. 4. presented by the Canons of Puy en Velai to Colbert, in 1681, in two volumes, of the ninth century; (16.) the Bible in the library of St. Geneviève at Paris, of the ninth century; (17.) the Bible in the monastery of St. Gall, of the same age; (18.) the Bible formerly in the library of Cardinal Passionei, described by Blanchini, Evang. Quadr. i. Dlxv. Dlxx. of the ninth century; (19.) the Bible in the church of Narbonne, of the same period, referred to by the Benedictines; and perhaps several more in various monastic libraries of France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.

It is not here intended to speak of copies of the New Testament or the Gospels, the bare enumeration of which would fill a moderate-sized volume, and which from the sixth century downwards exhibit all the pomp and splendor that the united arts of caligraphy and illumination could bestow on them. I may be permitted however to observe, in connection with the object for which these remarks were drawn up, that at Zurich and Amsterdam are preserved copies of the Gospels in all probability written by the care of Alchuine, since they have verses prefixed in which he is expressly named as the reviser;90 and at Ratisbon is a splendid MS. of the Gospels written in gold, for the use of the emperor Charles le Chauve in 870, to which his portrait is prefixed.91

87 Nouv. Tr. de Dipl. iii. 254.

It is now time to close this examination, which has led me further than I expected, and yet I have by no means exhausted my materials. It will be necessary, in forming an opinion of the value of the Bible now in the Museum, to discard all feelings of prejudice and selfishness. The hardy assertion of M. de Speyr-Passavant, that his MS. was the earliest copy of the Latin Scriptures in existence is not true; nor is the equally confident statement, that there was no other MS. of the time of Charlemagne to be found in France, intitled to a greater degree of credit. Both are ignorant mis-statements, founded on interested motives. The Prayer-Book of Charlemagne, in spite of his impotent efforts 92 to prove it written for Charles le Chauve,

must ever retain its undoubted authenticity. That the Bible now in the British Museum has superior claims to be considered the copy presented by Alchuine to Charlemagne than any other, I have, I trust, succeeded in rendering probable; and it must not be forgotten, that the names of some of the first judges in matters of this description, particularly in France, (where they had their own MSS. to consult and, as it were, to defend) have given their written testimonies in favour of this proposition. For myself, 1 should be very glad if these observations might elicit from any other person more profoundly versed in the subject, any further arguments or illustrations which might definitively settle the question.

F. M.

MR. URBAN,

I PERUSED with pleasure and instruction in your October number an account of the little Church at Nateley in Hampshire, from the pen of your intelligent, and very intelligible, contributor, E. I. C. I say with pleasure, because, latterly, your pages have been comparatively barren of those communications upon ecclesiastical antiquities, for which your Magazine has been so long the depository, and which are yet so anxiously expected in it by a certain class of readers, who, like myself, in perusing such accounts hold 'converse deep,' and for the last time, with the pious founders and skilful architects of many venerable structures which caprice and time are daily dooming to desolation.

I was however most interested by the description of the base of the western column of the doorway; a kind of base which certainly is rare in England, and, as pourtrayed in your engraving, so similar to the capitals of door-way columns of the 11th and 12th

In

centuries, that it might well be taken for a 'capital reversed." But in Germany, whence I have just arrived from a short tour in search of the Romanesque,' directed by the Rev. Mr. Whewell's usefulNotes on German Churches,' I twice met with such capital-like foliaged bases, viz. at Carden on the Mosel, and at Cologne on the Rhine; and I dare say that during a more extended journey I should have seen many more. both instances these bases form parts of columns which are small and isolated. Those of Carden belong to the curious Font of which I send herewith an illustrative drawing; and I confess that until I had examined the whole Font, of which the upper part was hidden by an embroidered silken cloth, seeing only the lower portion of the columns, I thought that these bases were merely capitals reversed.

The columns at Cologne above alluded to, are on the north side of the cloister of the very ancient church of St. Maria Capitoline in that interest

These columns are interesting from another circumstance, which, although irrelevant perhaps to the principal object of this communication, viz. the foregoing general animadversion upon foliaged bases, I will briefly describe in hopes of arresting the attention of E. 1. C. or any other gentleman to so unusual a feature of Romanesque or early Gothic architecture, and possibly of obtaining information where the like exists at home.

I cannot send you a drawing of these columns above alluded to, but they may be 1 trust intelligibly described as isolated columns, having, above their plinths, peculiar, low, truncated cones, sculptured with upright foliage; and, above this, the torus, shaft, astragal, and foliaged. cushion capital so common to all columns of the Romanesque and Transition styles; having, moreover, two other peculiar members, repetitions

as it were of the usual capital, and formed of two truncated four-sided pyramids, one upon the other, but both inverted and embellished with small horizontal mouldings of different forms, resembling, though on a smaller scale, the fascia and mouldings of the frieze and cornice of genuine Roman architecture.

Permit me, in conclusion, to beg the notice, by some Correspondent, of that kind of base-ornament so often seen laid upon the angles of the plinths of large Romanesque and Norman columns, which Mr. Rickman calls a claw. This I have seen in Germany

very like' a claw, but in England it is usually, when fully worked, more like a broad flat crumpled dockleaf, and therefore probably the prototypeor the successor, of the kind of foliaged base, which has given rise to this desultory paper.

PLANTAGENET.

noost;-an se du seez hiz fes wiz timmie, an da nukkie o' hiz kepp bùre stracht owr da hedd o' da rull, an se mycht I dù weel az I tuik hit fur a trow, an ma hert tuik a flochtin an a whiskin hit wiz unmodarit, bit whan I kam atweest himm an da lycht, hee luikit upp, an whan hee saa mee hee whett da rùll, an aff hee gud lekda ful o' da ere. A'll ashùre dee hiz feet wiz wirt twa pere o' haands till him fur gin I kùd a gotten had apun him, ill luk sit i' ma haands gin I sùd na astud hiz luggs, itt hee sùd a been kent fur a teef a da deys o' hiz lyfe. An se du seez I giangs doon trou tidda steag, an hit wiz dat dark it I wid na a kent what hit wiz, bit dere I fins twa sukkalegs stikkit fu o' whyte oo' apun a tuag lyin benon a meashie o' hedderkows itt heed been fetshin hemm ta soop da lumms o' Skerpa, an I fan da tnyfe itt hee wiz haddin atill hiz sheeks, a prettie splunder niu joktalegg oot o' da shopp o' Bunis, itt heed koft da ook afoar frae Lowrie Bartlesin fur a pere o' piltak waands itt he stùl oot anonder da boat o' Hullan, apo da ere o' Widweek, da dey it he gùd ta Hermaness wee da ouzen o' Skerpa. An I fan da teef's snuffmill, itt heed wrocht oot o' hiz pokkit, whinn hee wiz stryddin fornent da rùll. Bitt dis iz no a. Alto I gatt na menze apun him at dat meentyme, I mett him in a mistie

moarnin fur a dat.

I waarn hit wiz a gùde munt o' deys efter dat, whinn hee wiz draan him weel up ta Ionsmis, itt I wiz kummin hemm frae Ska, whaar I wiz rowin dat simmer, ee setterdey nycht wi a biudie o' ling hedds an peerie brismaks, an bruk o' dat kynd apo ma bak, nevvir tinkin o' noathin insep da ùlie itt wiz rinnin oot o a liver hedd i ma biudie, an a ere o soor blaand itt wiz leakin oot o a botle it I hed, an rinnin doon apo ma bak wi a sweein an a yuke itt wiz undùmas, fur dae wirr a grett mukkle scab rycht anonder ma biudie, an whinn I kam upp trow fre da Santkluff, ti da toon o' Norrook, I luiks behint mee, an wha tinks du seez I bitt Steaggie kummin sloomin himm upp efter mee, an se tinks I, bruee, du an I hez a kra ta pluk afoar wee pairt; an whinn I kam ti da yaard o' Digran, I lint mee apo da yaard dek ta tak in da baand o' ma biudie, an de wirr a hel boats-kru o' Nor

ruk men staandin anonder da stak, lipnin a tùlie atweest Meggie o' Digran an Annie Sudderlan, itt wiz flytin wee a veelansie itt wiz unspeakable, kiz Annie hedd bund herr niu kallud ku upun a ley rigg o' Meggie's, it de'd no been a kliv apun i da sezin, an Meggie hed british'd Annie's spleet niu herin teddir se sma itt de wirr

you see his face was to me, and the corner of his cap lay straight over the head of the colt. And, so might I do well, as I took him for a boggle, and my heart took a flickering and a fluttering that was immoderate; but when I came betwixt him and the light, he looked up and when he saw me he quitted the colt and off he went like a fowl of the air. I will assure you that his feet were worth two pair of hands to him: for if I could have gotten hold of him, ill luck sit in my hands, if I should not have cropped his ears, that he should have been known for a thief all the days of his life. And so, you see, I goes down straight to the colt, and it was that dark that I would not have known what it was, but there I finds two little pokes filled full of white wool, upon a raw hide lying above a bundle of heather stalks, that he had been fetching home to sweep the chimneys of Skerpa. And I found the knife that he was holding against his chops--a pretty bright new jackalegs, out of the shop of Bunis, that he had bought the week before from Lowrie Bartlesin, for a pair of fishing rods that he stole from under the boat of Hullan, upon the shore of Widweek, the day that he went to Hermaness with the oxen of Skerpa. And I found the thief's snuff-mill, that had worked out of his pocket when he was striding before the colt. But this is not all. Although I got no satisfaction of him at that very time, I met him in a misty morning for all that.

I warrant it was a good month of days after that, when he was drawing him well up to Ionsmis, that I was coming home from Ska, wheere I was fishing that summer, one Saturday night with a creil [or basket] of ling heads and small tusk-fish, and scraps of that kind upon my back, never thinking of nothing except the oil that was running out of a liver head in my pannier and a little sour buttermilk had, and running down upon my back that was leaking out of a bottle that I with a tickling and an itching that was inconceivable, for there was a great large scab under my creil, and when I came up just from the sand cliff to the town of Norrook, I looks behind me and who, think you, saw I but Steaggie, coming slipping up after me; and so thinks I, brother, thou and I have a crow to pluck before we part. And when I came to the garden of Digran, I leant me upon the garden dyke to take-in the band of my pannier, and there were a whole boat's crew of Norrook men standing under the stack, watching a quarrel between Meggy of Digran and Annie Sudderlan, that were

Swein means a disagreeably burning

sensation.