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pleasanter flavour; for the wines do not distort the faces of the drinkers by their acidity, as they may be put in competition with those of France in sweetness."* If any credit then can be given to the authority of this well informed writer, the fact of the existence of vineyards in England seems to be established from this single passage; for he first mentions the corn, then the apple trees, and lastly the vines. In a word, he distinguishes the vine from the apple tree in the clearest manner. But to leave no shadow of doubt with respect to his meaning on this point, he shortly afterwards describes the very growing of the vine. "Not even the smallest patch of land is there unoccupied; in one place the land swells into orchards, in another the ground is covered with vines, which either creep over the soil, or limb upwards along wooden props.t"

With this positive testimony, supported as it is by circumstantial evidence, one might have reasonably imagined that Barrington and other antiquaries would rest contented, but no-they still cling with pertinacious obstinacy to the notion, that cider and not wine from the grape was the thing meant by our national annalist. That the view however which I have taken of this subject, is consonant to the truth, may be further demonstrated, as the anatomists say, since in the Norman period most of the monasteries were possessed of vineyards. In the register of Spalding Priory, we have this succinct account of its almoner. "By the permission of the Prior, he bought some lands, built dwelling houses and a chapel, planted vineyards and orchards, and collected thither wretched persons, affording them necessaries for their subsistence."; We meet also with the word, vinitor, vine-dresser, in the Domesday Survey.§ The existence of vines in England is also thus noticed in Gibson's Camden and Fuller's Worthies. "Now these vineyards have nothing left in this county, (Gloucester,) but the places named from them, viz. one near Tewkesbury, at present called the Vineyard; and another on a rising hill by Oversbridge, near Gloucester, where was a large house moated round, belonging to the Bishop of Gloucester, built about the year 1851, by the Abbot of Gloucester,

* The learned reader may not be displeased to see this passage in the original, though it is long, and which I have translated as I well could to make it purely English, since much importance is attached to it, and deservedly so in the estimation of those who have been at the pains to examine this controverted point. "Terræ omnis frugum opima fructum ferax hic et sola naturæ gratia, illic culturæ solertia ut quamvis tædiosum per socordiam provocet ad laboris illecebram, ubi centuplicato fænore responsuræ sit copia. Cernas tramites publicos vestitos pomiferis arboribus non insitiva manus industria, sed ipsius solius humi natura. Regio plusquam alia Angliæ provinciæ vinearum frequentia densior, proventu uberior sapore jucundior. Vina enim ipsa bibentium ora tristi non torquent acredine, quippe parum debeant Gallicis dulcedine." De Gestis Pontificum, Lond. 1596. Lib. IV., p. 161.

† "Nulla ibi vel exiqua terræ portio vacat, hic in pomiferas arbores terra se subigit, hic præter texitur ager vineis quæ per terram repunt, vel per bajulos palos in celsum surgunt." Ibid, p. 167.

† "Permissione Prioris, emit terras, edificavit domos et capellam, fecit ortum, plantavit vineam et pomaria congregavit miseros præbens eis necessaria alimenta." MS. Cole. Brit. Mus. Vol. XLIII, p. 93.

§ Domes. Tom. 1, fol. 36.

but it was totally ruined in the late civil wars."* "It appears by ancient records, that some towns in Gloucestershire paid rent wines in great proportions." The following observation is likewise very curious, and of weight enough in itself to evince to such as are not affected by the prejudices of Barrington, how untenable is the ground which this eminent antiquary has taken on this question of discussion. "It is affirmed, that we have still upon record some treaty of peace between France and England, in which it is stipulated that we shall root up our vineyards, and be their customers for all our wine. If such extirpation of the English vineyards was not owing to this, it might be to the falling of Gascony into the hands of the English, whence wine was imported cheaper and better than we could make it." Are there not good reasons for concluding from this, and the foregoing statements, that the most clear and decisive testimony may be adduced, that formerly plantations of the vine existed in England. The judgment of fair and impartial persons, after these specific references to books of high authority, must surely be in the affirmative.

F. A. S.

March 2nd, 1835.

SPRING.

Again the spring!-again the song
Of birds throughout the grove;
These, all the day-all night prolong
Their liquid utterance, 'mid the throng-
The burst the peal of love.
Still in primeval strength the world
Pours forth its latent stores;
As when rude chaos back was hurled
From space, and first the sun unfurled
To earth, his living powers.

I joy to think, this fair, soft thing,
Which cowers before the breeze,
Is all immortal! - none may fling
Thee back to nothing!-glorious spring!
Whence are thy mysteries?

'Tis true this flower may seem to die,
And hurry to decay;

It doth but mock the curious eye-
It blooms again aye, beauteously!-
Forth from sepulchral clay.
I tremble, as I think! - For He
Who gave thee life, frail thing!
Now moves alike mysteriously
Within the frame thus bent o'er thee,-
Germ of eternal spring!

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ANNA.

REMARKS ON THE ART OF MULTIPLYING IMPRESSIONS FROM ENGRAVED SURFACES.

BY WILLIAM CAREY.

MR. EDITOR,-Some of your readers will, I hope, be induced to more ample researches by the following thoughts on the means afforded by sculpture and engraving in Babylon and Egypt, towards a discovery, in those early ages, of this art of multiplying impressions of engraved inscriptions, figures, portraits, and historical delineations. My present suggestions will prove of some use if they only serve to excite the curiosity and stimulate the pens of more competent correspondents.

Our school-boy predilections are strengthened, and our earnest sympathies kept alive by the connection of Egypt and Assyria, with the Hebrews; by the place which they occupy in Holy Writ, and their influence on so many nations in post-diluvian antiquity. The fame of the wars and conquests, the learning, arts, and wisdom of the Egyptians, as recorded by Moses, Herodotus, Diodorus, and all the ancient historians, whose works have survived the wreck of time, is heightened by the stupendous grandeur of their ruined cities, those sublime architectural monuments, which, without detracting from the purity and beauty of Grecian style, in after ages, fill the mind with amazement, and throw a comparative littleness on all the other works of man.

It is allowed that ancient history affords few new facts; but often as the field has been gleaned, Europe still reverts, and will ever look back, with deep and laudable feelings, to those primitive times, here under reference. The number of able publications ons relative to Egypt, by the French Savans and other travellers, since the invasion by Bonaparte, has presented a vast mass of valuable information to the world. But each fresh discovery has only served to excite a greater degree of curiosity, as if the public

"Appetite grew by what it fed on."

Every thing is deemed of importance, which, in any degree, contributes to ascertain the manners or customs, laws, arts, and sciences of this wonderful people, or which tends to stimulate modern exertion by an impartial comparison of their extraordinary energies with the ascending spirit of the present era. This avidity continues to increase, although to those writers, who have not visited that country and collected fresh materials on the spot, little is left but the difficult task of placing circumstances already known, in somewhat of a new light; or rendering them more striking by their combinations and more available for the aid of science, by ingenious reflections. Even such essays are received with attention, and read with a degree of interest, in proportion to the justice of their speculations and their useful tenour. It affords matter for much surprise when we consider the very general practice of carving and engraving inscriptions and figured representations from history, in the most ancient nations, contrasted with the very late application of those arts in Germany, between the years 1400 and 1460, to the discovery, or method, of multiplying impressions from engraved wooden blocks or types and plates of metal. When we take into account the many thousand years that elapsed after man had invented all the implements or means of printing, before he applied those means to that end, a person, not con

at

versant in history, might be tempted to doubt or disbelieve the ancient knowledge of the graving tool. He might not unreasonably conclude that in remote antiquity, the path to this most invaluable invention was as unknown as that "undiscovered bourn from whence no traveller returns." To judge from its very late date in modern Europe, one might imagine it had blazed suddenly out by some accidental collision, without any prior advance towards its accomplishment. But a rapid glance the progress of those arts, which were the germs, or matrix, of printing from types and engraved plates, will bring under more immediate view the scattered facts, which are connected with this most extraordinary oversight in the history of man, and will shew that the ancients had invented all the separate means or materials for printing, more than three thousand years before these means were applied, in Europe, to their most important end, the discovery and practice of the latter inestimable art. A lucky thought only was wanting to effect, in those ages, a wonderful revolution for the better in the condition of mankind.

The necessity for some more permanent mode than oral communication, songs, or tradition, ever liable to be forgotten, or intermixed with fable, early suggested various rude inventions to preserve the memory of remarkable events. This want must have occurred about the time when men began to aggregate in towns and cities, under social laws for their mutual protection and defence. But how slowly, and by what blind and inadequate means, were they forced to proceed! Notched pieces of slender wood, such as our modern tallies, were among the first expedients made use of in Babylon, Nineveh, and Egypt. Small cords, with knots at prescribed distances, and under fixed modifications, were used for the same purpose by the Chinese in the ancient ages before the reign of Fohi. It is worthy of remark that the Peruvians, when first visited by the Spaniards, also used knotted cords, with the addition of variegated colours, which gave them a more extensive signification. The Egyptians early invented the mode of speaking to the eyes by delineations of the objects in question. Some historians affirm that coloured earths were made use of to paint, or (if the expression may be used) write these rude symbols on the broad leaves and trunks of trees, the dressed skins of animals, and other applicable materials. This is not improbable, but the most accredited authorities have agreed in attributing the invention of painting, as a science, to Greece, at a much later period. Amidst much doubt and conjecture, it is supposed that these feeble and uncertain efforts in Egypt and Assyria led, in those nations, to the invention of hieroglyphical writing, as a more ample method of recording their laws and public transactions. Durability being their aim, they were necessitated to employ incision with hardened tools, and, also, to use the hardest substances; and wood, stone, and metal, being the most lasting, were soon generally made use of for their records. In those productions we find the invention of the chisel and graving tool, of sculpture and engraving.

Hieroglyphical writing, with those implements, had arrived at considerable perfection before any movement towards the invention of characters to represent words, independent of corporeal objects. A most comprehensive ive and sublime genius was necessary for this most wonderful of all wonderful conceptions. The composition of characters, which are termed letters, to delineate the infinities of thought to the eye, to express sound, the passions, the motion of the winds and waters, and all the world of things invisible and visible, must have been apparently so impossible, that we may well be astonished how an idea so remote from every tangible property, ever entered the human imagination. The

endeavours to effect this vast improvement produced the amazing invention of alphabetic and syllabic writing. The Greeks of the fabulous ages, laid claim to this. But the efforts of their writers, to aggrandise their country, have thrown a doubt on their accounts of many events at that uncertain period. There is just reason for the opinion which assigns this invention to Egypt, from whence it was introduced into Phenicia, and from thence by Cadmus into Greece. Unfortunately the name of the benefactor, to whom we are indebted for this precious advantage, is lost, and he, who furnished the means of immortality to the Great and Good, in all after ages, is himself unknown.

The Chaldeans used tiles and bricks of burnt clay as tablets or records; of these there are many specimens preserved in Museums in England and on the Continent. In Trinity College, Cambridge, there are several; and among them one of a round form, shaped like a barrel, seven inches high, three inches thick at each end, and covered with letters and words from one end to the other. It is computed to be above four thousand years old; but it is not easy to determine how those inscriptions were produced; whether by the hand, or stamped from some mould or engraved surface; the latter is the prevalent opinion.

The chisel and graving tool long continued the most effective implements of history, and of public instruction. It was customary to erect pillars in the most conspicuous places, and to cover them with engraved inscriptions. According to Diodorus, Strabo, and other ancient authorities, the engraved pillars set up by Osiris, Bacchus, Sesostris, and Hercules, to perpetuate the fame of their achievements and expeditions, were highly celebrated in those ages. Pillars were also raised with engraved laws and moral systems, to instruct and edify the people. Mercury Trismegistus engraved on those, which he set up, the entire of his precepts and doctrines. They were still more esteemed and famous than those which were the offspring of vanity, and the testimonials of sanguinary wars and conquests. The name of the person is not known, who raised the very ancient pillars in the Isle of Crete, on which was engraved a description of all the ceremonies used by the Corypheans. The engraving of remarkable events, laws, and lessons of wisdom, on pillars, became very general. They were valued by the early nations as the most permanent, and from their publicity, the most authentic and useful records. The greater number of the ancient historians compiled their works from these inscriptions. The Egyptian priests, to conceal the dark mysteries of Polytheism from the multitude, and to keep up their veneration for the established forms of worship, continued to use hieroglyphical writing, with the chisel and graver, long after that mode had been superseded by the introduction of alphabetic characters in public. It is supposed that the use of hieroglyphics was thus, partially, kept up, after the ravages by Cambyses and the Persian domination, to the times of the Ptolemies. The obelisks, covered with hieroglyphics, are attributed to the reign of Sesostris, about 1600 years before the Christian era.

The pillar of beautiful white marble, called the Sigean inscription, from its being dug up on the promontory of Sigeum, near the ancient city of Troy, is the oldest specimen of an engraved record on stone as yet discovered. It is two feet broad, nine feet high, and eight inches thick. The words show that it was the pedestal to a statue of the god Hermocrates; and as they are cut from the right to the left, like the Hebrew style, this monument is supposed to be about 3000 years old.

As they advanced in civilization and power, the Egyptians employed the chisel and graver more frequently, and to a greater extent, on their

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