The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 358, February 28, 1829

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 358, February 28, 1829
Various

Various

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction / Volume 13, No. 358, February 28, 1829

YORK TERRACE, REGENT'S PARK.

YORK TERRACE,

REGENT'S PARK

If the reader is anxious to illustrate any political position with the "signs of the times," he has only to start from Waterloo-place, (thus commencing with a glorious reminiscence,) through Regent-street and Portland-place, and make the architectural tour of the Regent's Park. Entering the park from the New Road by York Gate, one of the first objects for his admiration will be York Terrace, a splendid range of private residences, which has the appearance of an unique palace. This striking effect is produced by all the entrances being in the rear, where the vestibules are protected by large porches. All the doors and windows in the principal front represented in the engraving are uniform, and appear like a suite of princely apartments, somewhat in the style of a little Versailles. This idea is assisted by the gardens having no divisions.

The architecture of the building is Græco-Italian. It consists of an entrance or ground story, with semicircular headed windows and rusticated piers. A continued pedestal above the arches of these windows runs through the composition, divided between the columns into balustrades, in front of the windows of the principal story, to which they form handsome balconies. The elegant windows of this and the principal chamber story are of the Ilissus Ionic, and are decorated with a colonnade, completed with a well-proportioned entablature from the same beautiful order. Mr. Elmes, in his critical observations on this terrace, thinks the attic story "too irregular to accompany so chaste a composition as the Ionic, to which it forms a crown;" he likewise objects to the cornice and blocking-course, as being "also too small in proportion for the majesty of the lower order."

York Terrace is from the design of Mr. Nash, whose genius not unfrequently strays into such errors as our architectural critic has pointed out.

VALENTINE CUSTOMS

(To the Editor of the Mirror.)

As some of the customs described by your correspondent W.H.H.[1 - See No. 356 of the MIRROR, "Valentine's Day."] are left unaccounted for, I suppose any one is at liberty to sport a few conjectures on the subject. May not, for instance, the practice of burning the "holly boy" have its origin in some of those rustic incantations described by Theocritus as the means of recalling a truant lover, or of warming a cold one; and thus translated:—

"First Delphid injured me, he raised my flame,
And now I burn this bough in Delphid's name."

Virgil, too, in his 8th Eclogue, alludes to the same charm:—

"Sparge molam, et fragiles incende bitumine lauros;
Daphnis me malus urit, ego hanc in Daphnide laurum."

"Next in the fire the bays with brimstone burn,
And whilst it crackles in the sulphur, say,
This I for Daphnis burn, thus Daphnis burn away."

    DRYDEN.
The "holly bush" being made to represent the person beloved, may also be borrowed from the ancients:—

—–"Terque hæc altaria circum
Effigiem duco."

    VIRGIL.
"Thrice round the altar I the image draw."

The burning wax candles may be more difficult to account for, unless it refer to the custom of melting wax in order to mollify the beloved one's heart:—

"As this devoted wax melts o'er the fire,
Let Myndian Delphis melt with soft desire."

    THEOCRITUS.
—–"Hæc ut cera liquescit."
—–"Sic nostro Daphnis amore."

    VIRGIL.
For a woman to compose a garland was always considered an indication of her being in love. Aristophanes says,

"The wreathing garlands in a woman is
The usual symptom of a love-sick mind."

Should the charms resorted to by lovers two thousand years ago, appear to you, even remotely, to have influenced the love rites as performed by the village men and maidens of the present day, perhaps you may deem this string of quotations worthy of a corner in your amusing miscellany.

E.

LINES

On the Sarcophagus[2 - See MIRROR, No. 306, p 234.] which contains the remains of Nelson in St. Paul's Cathedral

(For the Mirror.)

To mark th' excess of priestly pow'r
To keep in mind that gorgeous hour,
Thou art no Popish monument,
Altho' by Wolsey thou wer't sent,
From thine own native Italy
To tell where his proud ashes lie.
To thee a nobler part is given!
A prouder task design'd by heav'n!
'Tis thine the sea chief's grave to shroud,
Idol and wonder of the crowd!
The bravest heart that ever stood
The shock of battle on the flood!
The stoutest arm that ever led
A warrior o'er the ocean's bed!
Whose name long dreaded on the sea
Alone secured the victory!
His Britain sea-girt stood alone,
Whilst all the earth was heard to moan,
Beneath war's iron—iron rod,
Trusting in Nelson as her god.—CYMBELINE.

COINAGE OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS

(For the Mirror.)

In 1749, a considerable number of gold coins were discovered on the top of Karnbre, in Cornwall, which are clearly proved to have belonged to the ancient Britons. The figures that were first stamped on the coins of all nations were those of oxen, horses, sheep, &c. It may, therefore, be concluded, that the coins of any country which have only the figures of cattle stamped on them, and perhaps of trees, representing the woods in which their cattle pastured,—were the most ancient coins of the country. Some of the gold coins found at Karnbre, and described by Dr. Borlase, are of this kind, and may be justly esteemed the most ancient of our British coins. Sovereigns soon became aware of the importance of money, and took the fabrication of it under their own direction, ordering their own heads to be impressed on one side of the coins, while the figure of some animal still continued to be stamped on the other. Of this kind are some of the Karnbre coins, with a royal head on one side, and a horse on the other. When the knowledge and use of letters were once introduced into any country, it would not be long before they appeared on its coins, expressing the names of the princes whose heads were stamped on them. This was a very great improvement in the art of coining, and gave an additional value to the money, by preserving the memories of princes, and giving light to history. Our British ancestors were acquainted with this improvement before they were subdued by the Romans, as several coins of ancient Britain have very plain and perfect inscriptions, and on that account merit particular attention.

INA.