shavings, and to avoid raifing the grain of the wood, which was reduced, by this means, to omo 02 (inches) hack. He took afterwards a flat toothed * plane, of which the effect is nearly funilar to that of a ralp, which takes off the wood in form of a duft or powder: it was reduced by this tool to a thickness nor exceeding that of an ordinary sheet of paper, In this state, the wood having been repeatedly wetted with fair water, in small compartments, was carefully detached by the artift with the rounded point of a knite blade. The Citizen Haquin, having then taken away the whole of the priming on which the picture had been painted, and especially the varnishes, which fome former reparations had made neceffary, laid open the very sketch itself of Raphael. In order to give some degree of fuppleness to the painting, fo much hardened by time, it was rubbed with cotton dipped in oil, and wiped with old muslin; after which a coating of white lead, ground with oil, was substituted for the former priming, and laid on with a foft brush. After three months drying, a gauze was pafted on to the oil-priming, and over that a fine cloth. This being again dried, the picture was detached from the table, and again turned, for the purpose of tak ing off the cartonage by means of water; which operation being finished, they proceeded to take away certain inequalities of the furface, which had arifen from its unequal shrinkingt during the former ope, rations. To this end the artist applied fucceflively to these inequalities a thin paste of wheaten flour, over which a strong paper being laid, he passed over it a heated iron, which produced the defired effect; but it was not until the most careful trial had been made of the due heat of the iron, that it was allowed to approach the picture. We have thus feen, that having fixed the picture, freed from every extraneous matter, upon an oil priming, and having given a a true form to its furface, it yet remained to apply this chef'dœuvre of art firmly upon a new ground. To this end, it was neceffary to paper it afresh, and to take away the gauze, which had been provisionally laid upon the priming, to * Rabot plat à fer dentelé." + Recoquillement, for which no adequate word occurs in English. The French language is extremely rich in terms of art, moft of which are of a figurative kind, add a new coat of white lead and oil, and to apply upon that a very foft gauze, over which was again laid a cloth, woven all of one piece, and impregnated on the exterior furface with a reinous mixture, which served to fix it upon a similar cloth ftretched upon the frame. This last operation required the utmost care, in applying to the prepared cloth the body of the painting, freed again from its cartoxage, in avoiding the injuries which might arife from too great or unequal an extenfion, and, at the fame time, in obliging every part of its vast extent to adhere equally to the cloth stretched upon the frame. Thus was this valuable picture incor porated with a base more durable even than its former one, and guarded against those accidents, which had before produced its decay. It was still, however, to undergo that part of its rettoration, which may be ftyled pictorial. This was confided by the Adminiftra tion to the Citizen Ræser, to whom it owes the reparation of other valuable pictures, and whose repeated fuccess was a fufficient motive for their confidence. The commiffaries, having pointed out the processes to be made use of on this occafion, are fatisfied that it has been done in a manner as perfect as could be detired: and here terminates their intereiting report. We have thus the happiness of feeing this chef d'œuvre of the immortal Raphael restored, as it were, to new life, shining in all its splendour, and without any fear of the return of those accidents which had threated to ravish it for ever from the admiration of the world. The Administration of the Central Museum of Arts, which has thus, by its fuperior intelligence, perfected the art of restoration, will doubtless neglect nothing which may tend to preferve so valuable an art in all its purity; and, notwithstanding fuch re peated successes, will not fuffer it to be applied, except to objects which are so far decayed, that it is better to fubject them to those hazards, which are inseparable from operations so delicate and mulrifarious, than to abandon them to the deftruction which threatens them. The invitation, which the Adminiftration of the Museum has made to the National Institute, to direct the above-described proceffes in the restoring of this picture, is a fore warrant that the learned men who com pose it, look upon their labours as carried on under the eye of the whole of enlightened Europe. T To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, I Park Place, Νου. 7, 1802. For the Monthly Magazine. B work, it But, though I do not professedly appear in the character eithe of the antiquary or the Ciceroni, I thall occafionally enter into the province of both. I shail, of necefiity, sometimes ramble out of the common way: fometimes I shall confider myself as a mere finger, pointing out a road to fome future traveller; and, though jokes and puns more properly characterize my aunt Oxford, as a learned humourift called her, than my venerable mother Cambridge, yet in a Cantabrigiana, an agreeable anecdote, and a smat faying, will be expected, at least occafionally; and, in spite of mathematics, Cambridge produced a jett-book in 1674. It has not, however, been my fortune to fee it, nor would it aniwer my purpole; though a Cambridge Jest-book, or a Joe Miller, S. P. may fometimes give better exercise than more ferious books: they fet people on the ondeavour to please; and, for aught I know, inay prevent furrows from fettling on the cheeks too rapidly. EFORE I enter immediately on my may not be improper to give a little further explanation of my method, I shall intrude them intono man's province, and will take no improper liberties. I propose no cenfures on living characters, and shall not trample on the ashes of the venerable dead. My aim is liberal :- I hope to obtain a liberal hearing; I wish my work to be like the philofophers dwelling, beneath envy, but above contempt. From the preceding letter it will appear, that I do not propose to offer very profound researches, or to enter on very learned difquifitions. To be agreeable, and yet, in fome fort, useful, will be my ultimate ambition. Elaborate and fyftematic arrangement I leave to the antiquary and hiftorian. I propose the work, I own, as an amusement for a man of letters; and it will, I apprehend, be more acceptable to a Cambridge-mar than to any other. I shall be happy if the motto placed over Sir Hendy Wotton's studydoor shall be found to characterize there pages" Idle hours not idly spent." I with it likewife to be understood, that I affest not the character of the Ciceroni, The office, indeed, is already occupied, and its duties are faithfully difcharged.Whoever wants a Ciceroni, will, of course, procure a Cambridge Guide; and for further inftruction will procure Athwerth's Cambridge Calendar. The Description of King's College, published in 1769, which was sketched out, I understand, by a learned Fellow of that Society, (Dr. James) will give him very agreeable information relative to King's College, with its chapel. If I could believe that a disciple of Newton, or of Locke - a theologian, or an accurate and laborious investigator of classical literature that a student of chemistry, or a profound linguist, who can ring changes not only on his own language, but alfo on the Perfian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Saxon languages,, taking tome of the modern in his way I fay, if I could believe that a scholar of any description, when he wishes to unbend his brow, could find any thing to awaken a finile, or from which to derive a useful hint, in my Cantabrigiana, though I would not fay, with Pindar, that I had reached the pillars of Hercules-yet I would fay "Honos erit buic quoque pomo." The writer of Anas poffettes some advantages over many other writers. He is not bound to the unities. He is scarcely obliged to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. He may make almost any thing ferve for an introduction. He may handle almost any fubject he pleases, and put his FINIS, provided he means to conclude, in any place he pleases. Sterne is one of the few writers who begins with finart allusion, and a liquorish kind of ftyle: my introduction is foft and regular, as my own character. But, in thus afferting the rights of the authors of ANAS, Imuit be supposed to refer to fuch writers only as do not arrange their remarks alphabetically, or proceed fystematically-fuch, without noticing the other Anas, whether Latin, French, or English, was the Walpoliana, well known : : i : i to the readers of the Monthly Maga zine. NO. 1.-DR. CAIUS. Dr. John Caius was physician to Queen One thing related of Dr. Caius, thews Anno 1640. Ab Jove principium. On speaking conceming Cambridge, it is natural, fomewhere about the beginning of my difcurtions, to say a word of its antiquity. Here follows a paflage from Sir Simon D'Ewes' speech, containing the Cambridge fide of the question. "There are two principal respects, be fides others, in which these famous uni verities may claim precedence each of other. " First, in refpect of their being, as they were places of note in the elder ages. "Secondly, as they were antient nurferies and feed-plots of learning. "If I do not, therefore, prove, that Cambridge was a renowned city at least five hundred years before there was a house of Oxford standing, and whilft brute beats fed and corn was fown in that place, where that city is now feated; and that Cambridge was a nursery of learning before Oxford was known to have a grammar-school in it, I will yield up the buck. lers. If I should lofe time to reckon up the vain allegations produced for the antiquity of Oxford by Twyne, and of Cambridge by Caius, I should but repeat deliria fenum, for I account the most of that they have published in print to be no better; but I find by authorities, without exception, that in the ancient catalogues of the cities of Britain, Cambridge is the ninth of number, where London itself is but the eleventh; and who should have thought, that ever Oxford should have contended forprecedence with Cambridge, which London gave it above twelve hundred years fince? This I find in Gildas Albanius's British History, who died about the year 520, being the ancienteft domestic monument we have, p. 60.And in a Saxon anonymous story, written in Latin, touching the Britons and Saxons, p. 39, who faid of himself, that he lived in the days of Penda, King of the Mercians, in the tenth year of his reign, and that he knew him well, which falls out to be near upon the year 620. And lastly, I find the catalogue of the faid British cities, with fome little variation, to be fet down in Nennius's Latin ftory of Britain, p. 38; and he wrote the fame, as he says of himself, in the year880. They all call it Cairgrant, the word cair, in the old Celtic tongue, fignifying a city. "These three stories are exotic and rare monuments remaining, yet only in ancient MSS. not known to many; but the authority of them is irrefragable, and without exception. The best and most ancient copies that I have feen of Gildas Albanius and Nennius, remain in the univerfity-library of Cambridge, being those I have vouched, and the Saxon anonymous in a library here near us. This Cairgrant is not only expounded by Alfred of Beverley to fignify Cambridge, but alfo by William de Ramsey, abbot of Croyland, in a MS. story of the Life of Guthlanus, ignorantly in those days reputed a faint. The faid William goes further, and fays it was fo called a Grauta flumine. This place remained still a city of tame and repute a long time, under the reign of the English English Saxons, and is called in divers of the old Saxon MSS. annals Granteceafter; and, notwithstanding the great devastations it fuffered, with other places, by reason of the old Danish incurfions, yet in the firit tome or volume of the hook of Domefday (for now I come to cite record), it appears to have been a place of confiderable moment, having in it decem cuftodias, and a castle of great strength and extent; and fo I have done with Cambridge as a renowned place." The other part of this celebrated speech I pass over. III.-An amicable way of fettling the Dispute concerning the Antiquity of Cambridge and Oxford from Thomas Fuller. I care not a rush which of these aged ladies is to take precedence of the other, and most cordially approve the amicable manner in which Thomas Fuller adjusts the difference. "Far be it from me (fays he) to make odious comparifons between Jachin and Boaz, the two pillars in Solomon's temple, by preferring either of them for beauty or strength, when both of them are equally admirable. Nor shall I make difference between the fitters, (copies of learning and religion), which should be the eldest. In the days of King Henry VI. fuch was the quality of defert between Humphrey Stafford Duke of Buckingham, and Henry Beauchampe Duke of Warwicke, that to prevent exceptions about priority, it was ordered by the Parliament that they should take precedency by turns, one one year, and the other the next year; and fo by course were to chequer or exchange their going or setting all the years of their life." This Thomas Fuller, to the honour of the University, and his own credit, was a Cambridge man, author of the Church History of Britain, and of a History of the University of Cambridge. IV.-Another way of fettling a Controversy. In the time of Sir T. Smith, and Sir J. Cheek, there was a celebrated difpute con cerning the proper pronunciation of the Greek language. While LordCromwell was Chancellor of the University, the newe larnynge gained ground. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, who afterwards became Chancellor, put a stop to its progress. And how did he fettle this controverfy? Thus: he issued an order in his own name and the Senate's: the following most fingular paffage is an extract from that order: Quisquis nostram potestatem agnofcis, fonos literis, five Græcis, five Latinis, ab usu publico præfentis fæculi alienos, privato judicio affingere ne audeto. "Diphthongos Græcas nedum Latinis, nifi id diærefis exigat, fonis ne diducito-al ab &, & et ab 1, sono ne diftinguito. Tantum iz orthographia difcrimen fervato e, i, v, uno eodemque fono exprimeto. "Ne multa-In fonis omnino ne philofaphator, fed utitor præfentibus." I have heard of a Via regia ad omnes artes et fcientias. This may be called a Via regia (except that it proceeded from the mouth of a priest) to fettle a learned question. The new method of reading Greek was afterwards revived, and is that which now prevails in England. E. R. ORIGINAL POETRY. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, THE following lines were found, with many other monuments of fine taste, and deep sensibility, among the papers of the late Miss Temple; and as they appear, from their dates, to have been fome of the first productions of her infant Muse, will not, it is prefumed, with a short account of the amiable, accom plished, and much-regretted author, be deemed unworthy a place in your justly-esteemed Mifcellany; a diftinction that cannot be too highly valued, which gives us the honest affurance of an honourable and moral fame-- " our early immortality," so truly gratifying to the elevated pride of a reflecting and ambitious mind.-Soothing and grateful, indeed, is the generous promife, that departed virtue, and extinguished talents, shall find a more permanent record than any the pomp of foulp ture, or the labours of infcription, can afford. The writer of the little poems here fut joined, was a striking example of what the powers of native genius may, effect usaffifted by any of those predeftined happy circumstances that shelter its first shoots from the blighting winds of unkindness or neglect, and, gently unfolding to mild skies its fubfequent blof foms, re resh and animate them with all the dews and light of heaven. Maria Temple's morning of life knew none of the blefledness of these unbribed and spon taneous advantages, yct the extraordinary vigour of her youthful mind, overcoming every dimicuity of Stuation, seemed to mock the toil of time, and in variety of instances to fuperfede the neceffity of inftruction. She united the noblest energies of intellect with a correctness, a depth, and perfpicuity of judgment, a lofty independent identity of opinion, with a modest attention to the opinion of others, that commanded univerfal affection, and often difarmed even envy; and this bright picture was rendered still more interefting by every delicacy of feeling, and every fofter shade of fentiment-by every grace of polished manners, and every charm of perfon, innocence, and nature. Such was her rapid proficiency in music, that at little more than five years old the played in public concert, as the inhabitants of Chefter muft well remember; and her advances in various of the other fifter arts and sciences were no less wonderful: though painting became the pation of her life; and her designs, like her symphonies, the careless graces of her fong, or the novel beauties of her andante airs, which were all improvvifa, spoke the genuine language of her foul, and were full of magnificent and fublime ideas-rich in fancy, and great in effect-like the lightning of her eyes, that flashed delight and rapture upon all the world of real tafte and feeling-force, and fidelity of expression marked all the did. Thus sparkling in every polished gem of mind, which borrowed nothing of its luftre from artifice or fashion, but was the pureft emanation from her divine original;-thus gentle, affable, and good-captivating in perfon, manners, and address; admiration never failed to attend on all her steps. But let it be more particularly remembered to the honour of this young lady, that praise never rendered her vain, nor confcious fuperiority presuming or arrogant. Unfeduced by what is falfely called pleasure, retirement was her choice, and all her hours were devoted to the acquisition of knowledge, the study of nature in its favourite walks, and the cultivation of her talents. It may be justly affirmed, that as the mental horizon widenher industry increased, that all her views illuminated with the rays of virtue, and afcertained, as the proceeded, with the manliness of truth. 'During her refidence last summer amidst the majestic and enchanting scenes of Devonshire, her enthusiasm was particularly awakened; it was the enthusiasm of the heart-tender, delicate, and melancholy; and during one of her folitary rambles the committed to paper that fingularlyfine pathetic address to her pencil, which appeared in the Star of July 14. Her health foon after declining, she was ordered to Briftol; and there, through all the flow gradations of the most funtle and treacherous of diforders, she displayed a magnanimity, a compofure, and even cheerfulness, that seemed indeed to fay "Death where is thy ftingGrave where is thy victory?" These instances, in which the foul bursts all its earthly hands, and afferts itseif in eternity, firnith a leffon more fublime and imprelive than aid that frigid philofophy ever taught. Newark, OF 11, 1802. LINES fupposed to have been found in an obfoure COMPTING-HOUSE near LONDON BRIDGE. Oppress'd by want, oppress'd by woe, And fet this proud heart free. Which mark'd the former day. That wings lorn thoughts with hope. I'm yet untaught to bear And fan his panting foul. Ye fhadowy fails which bluely rife, Of Portobello's beights. When from the fort the signal flies, If England's flag it bears? For her I scal'd the palm-clad steep, Slow |