Egyptian; the scheme of Berosus with that of Manetho.* It is impossible to find space for even a summary of these arduous chapters; and we recommend any one desirous of embarking in them on his own account, to make himself thoroughly master of their headings, at the beginning of each volume, in the first instance. Would that, in their elaborate composition, the limæ labor' had been more prominent. It is a calamity to society, when one of a thousand,' like Mr. Palmer, if indeed, for depth of learning and original thought, he has his equal amongst contemporaries-brings out a book-upon one of the most interesting of all subjects--that, from its unchastened prolixity, sadly confused arrangement, interminable digressions, long-drawn parentheses, slip-shod phraseology, uncouth quaintness in the mode of telling its story, is far more likely to repel than to attract the great mass of even inquisitive readers. Already that most masterly, and by no means cumbersome, volume of his, Dissertations on the Orthodox Communion,' is comparatively but little known, owing to its defects of style; and how differently would his present work have been received, did only every hundreth of its 1050 pages contain a sketch like the following-a plain proof of the style which Mr. Palmer can command when he thinks fit: Confining ourselves to the voyage on the Nile, let us recal if we have seen, or paint to ourselves from description, some of the most striking features of that scenery; the broad surface of the riverthe black steep bank-the creeking wheels for raising water to irrigate the banks the narrow, flat strip, covered with growing crops above the bank, sometimes of a dark blue green, sometimes of a yellow green-the bare stems of palms rising from this strip, some upright like slender shafts, others slanting in different ways, and all with the green tufts at their heads, showing as against a back ground, against the sky; or the yellow sand of the desert, or the rock rising behind; then the frequent mounds, like small hills, marking the sites of ancient towns, and often still occupied by modern villages each village on its mound-which during the inundation becomes an island-amid a clump of palm-trees, full of pigeons," (he might have added-with innumerable scavenger-birds, A chapter upon Chinese chronology, we venture to suggest, would have testified to some still more striking agreements. See, for instance, a paper by J. Williams, Esq., in vol. ii. of Transactions of the Chronological Institute. VOL. LI.-No CI. or kites, balanced in air round them, and screaming shrilly,) "the houses and walls all of sun-burnt bricks of black earth, such as were used by the ancient Egyptians-the doorways, too, slightly converging towards the top, as in all the old Egyptian buildingstheir roofs not flat, as in Syria, but rising into a multitude of picturesque turrets, which are dovecotes, and which give to the villages a castellated appearance-the contrast in places, where both are seen together, of the broad expanse of the river and treeless flats of the most vivid green in islands, or on the shores, with some portion of the yellow sand of the desert. From the hill and old rock-tombs above Osiout, formerly Lycopolis-and wolf-mummies are still visible in the tombs-this contrast is heightened by a double city, that of Osiout itself at one's feet-one of the chief places of modern Egypt, with its port full of life, connected with cultivated tracts on the shore, and in an island beyond, and with the river, with the picturesque sails of the vessels, pointed like hare's ears, crossing one another, upon it-and a little to the left, the medieval and modern necropolis, a perfect town of Saracenic tombs and small mosques and cupolas, standing apart without any sign of life or vegetation near it in the midst of the desert. Then, in places, the Libyan and Arabian mountains-sometimes both, but oftener only the Arabian-approach close to the bank, and narrow the course of the river; at others the river widens and bends so as to resemble a huge lake; in some places again it is divided into several channels, and half lost between extensive islands. When the Arabian hill comes near, the entrances to ancient tombs are often visible to passing boats in the rocks above. For those who have the use of their feet, a walk along the steep bank-by no means to be mounted and descended at every pointis an agreeable preparation for breakfast in the early morning, while the Arab crew tow the boat up the stream, crying out to keep time, and singing as they haul-on the deck too, and in rowing, they are not sparing in their songs. Sometimes, perhaps, a funeral from some village may be crossing the river, with the wailing of hired mourners, and a car drawn by oxen to convey the dead from the landing-place to the cemetery on the opposite bank; so that the modern funeral bears close resemblance to the ancientthe greater conveniences offered for burials by the more desert side, and the hill-bank, having perpetuated the custom of ferrying the dead across the water. The form and colours also of the cattle in the pastures, the innumerable flocks of wild geese on the river, and the barley, wheat, and dhourra of different heights in the cultivated tracts, remind one constantly of the cattle and crops sculptured and painted in the tombs, and of the geese, living and dead, which make so great a show in the same sculptures and paintings, that they quite take precedence of the kine and the beef. Buffaloes in the fields, and negro slaves, occur on the monuments: mixed, as now with the handsome cattle of the Apis form and breed, and with the native Egyptians: but now one sees also lines of camels with their packs, on the banks of the river, and in the city: and in the cultivated lands crops of maize, which are absent from the monuments."-p. xiii.-xv. O si sic omnia! Could not Mr. Palmer have borrowed a pen from his friend, Professor Stanley, a little oftener? In the name of the holy cause in which he has embarked, in justice to his own vast acquirements, let him study to write so that he may be read! ART. III-1. An Inquiry into the Person and Age of the long-lived Countess of Desmond. By the Hon. Horace Walpole. 1758. 2. Who was the old Countess of Desmond? By Richard Sainthill, Esq. (Olla Podrida, 1844.) 3. The old Countess of Desmond. Quarterly Review, March 1853. 4. A Second Series of Vicissitudes of Families. By Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King at Arms. 1860. 8vo. (Pp. 402-418. The Old Countess of Desmond.) 5. The olde Countesse of Desmonde : her Identitie; her Portraiture; her Descente. By the Ven. A. B. Rowan, D.D., M.R I.A. 1860. 6. The old Countess of Desmond: An Inquiry, Did she ever sock redress at the Court of Queen Elizabeth, as recorded in the Journal of Robert Sydney, Earl of Leycester? and, Did she ever sit for her Portrait? By Richard Sainthill, of Topsham, Devon, (Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. vii.) 1861. THE Old Countess of Desmond is the " Aunt Sally" of the historical arena. No sooner is the name of this venerable lady set up than adventurous champions are ever ready to take their aim, and to endeavour to knock her off her perch, to their own immortal honour and glory. It has been an exciting sport. But, after all, there is not so much in the actual performance, as in the imaginary difficulties and mystery affected by those who have set up the image. They have not been satisfied with one puppet, but have kept a box-full to exhibit in succession. There has not been merely a single Countess, but many, offered to view and the gamesters have had to exclaim, like the desperate monarch with whom the old lady's history is associated, "I think there be six Desmonds in the field, The great question has been the old lady's "identification;" she has been identified once and again, and yet the identification has been obscured and superseded by fresh disputes. Her assumed portraits are numerous, and some of them have, from time to time, been engraved as her "veritable portraiture," and yet Mr. Sainthill condemns them all. The extent of her longevity, which was the original source of her celebrity, has been stretched to various limits, and is still undetermined. We propose, in the present article, to take a sober and systematic review of the whole controversy, and rather to give a history of the discussion, than to take part in it ourselves to be the heralds of these literary jousts, rather than tilters or combatants. The subject, at its outset, has the recommendation of having attracted the notice of some of the greatest among English_authors. Having been originally started by Sir Walter Ralegh, it has interested Lord Bacon, Archbishop Usher, Sir William Temple, and many others of less celebrity. About a century ago, Horace Walpole imported his "Historic Doubts" into the discussion; and those doubts have been the prolific seed of other doubts, down to the present year of our Lord, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two. The earliest printed book in which the Countess of Desmond is mentioned is Sir Walter Ralegh's History of the World, published in 1614. He there states (at p. 66) — "I my self knew the old Countess of Desmond, of Iuchiquin in Munster, who lived in the year 1589, and many years since; who was married in Edward the Fourth's time, and held her joynture from all the Earles of Desmond since then; and that this is true all the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Munster can witnesse." The Itinerary of Fynes Moryson is the next testimony in order of date (1617).— "In our time the Irish Countesse of Desmond lived to the age of about 140 yeeres, being able to goe on foote foure or five miles to the market towne, and using weekly so to doe in her last yeeres; and not many yeeres before she died she had all her teeth renewed," These two passages are the sources from which all subsequent notices of the old Countess of Desmond are generally derived, with more or less of apocryphal embellishment. Nor is even the original account of Sir Walter Ralegh free from important error, as we shall find hereafter. We now proceed to lay before the reader all the additional anecdotes that are offered of this remarkable lady; with this warning, that, as we descend further from her own day, they become more and more suspicious. And first, let us see what Lord Bacon has said of her. Our great natural philosopher has mentioned the Countess of Desmond twice. First, in that part of his Instauratio Magna which is called the Historia Vita et Mortis, and which was printed in 1623. "Hiberni, presertim sylvestres, etiam adhuc sunt valde vivaces; certe aiunt, paucis abhinc annis Comitissam Desmondiæ vixisse ad anuum centessimum quadragesimum. Et tres per vices dentiisse." Thus translated in the early version "The Irish, especially the wild Irish, even at this day live very long; certainly they report that within these few years the Countess of Desmond lived to a hundred and forty years of age, and bred teeth three times." Again, in his Sulva Sylvarum or Natural History, first published by Dr. W. Rawley in 1627 (after the author's death) Lord Bacon writes, when discussing the subject of teeth "They tell a tale of the old Countess of Desmond, who lived till she was seven score years old, that she did dentire twice or thrice casting her old teeth, and others coming in their place." Upon these two passages all that we need observe at present is, that they contain nothing in addition to the statements of Fynes Moryson; whom Bacon evidently followed, as he had done just before in regard to a wellknown story of the morice dance performed by a company of aged men in Herefordshire, in the reign of James the First. |