this diftinguished perfonage. The beft was that found in Donald Lupton's enlarged tranflation from the Latin of the Heroologia of Henry Holland. Mr. Archdeacon Churton having (pent fome years in collecting materials for his purpose, has, in the prefent volume, given an account of the Dean of St. Paul's, for which he is entitled to our best acknowledgments. The work is divided into ten fections. In the first we have a defcription of the family, birth, and education, of Alexander Nowell. He was Fellow of Brazen Nofe College, afterwards Mafter of Weftminster School, where the famous topographer Harrison fays of himself, that he was "fometime an unprofitable grammarian under him." He was the second mafter on the new foundation-Adams was the firft. The fucceffor of Nowell was Nicolas Udall, famous, like Bufby," for erudition and for flogging." the first parliament of Mary, Nowell was returned for Loo, in Cornwall, but was not allowed to fit, having, as pre. bendary of Westminster, a voice in the convocation. Soon afterwards he had the good fortune to make his escape to Germany. In The fecond fection is employed in giving an account of the exiles difperfed in various parts of Germany, but principally at Strafburgh and Frankfort. In the difputes which took place among them on the fubject of forms of difcipline, the moderation of Nowell was particularly confpicuous. The third fection announces the acceffion of Elizabeth, and the return of the exiles. Nowell was made one of the commiffioners for the vifitation of the kingdom. His brother Laurence was appointed Dean of Lichfield-himself, Rector of Saltwood, Prebendary of Canterbury, Prebendary of Westminster, and finally Dean of St. Paul's. The remainder of the volume is employed in the exhibition of him both in his public office and domeftic life, and details much ferious and important matter, with great variety of anecdote, in that moft interefting period of our hiftory. As a fpecimen of the work, we select the conclufion of the laft fection. "Nowell was one of thefe holy builders, who, in repairing the breaches of our Sion, did not ufe untempered mortar.' Endowed with excellent parts, he was foon diftinguished by the progrefs he made in the schools of Oxford; where he devoted thirteen years, the flower of his youth and beft time for im. provement, to the cultivation of claffical elegance and useful knowledge. His capacity for teaching, tried firft in the fhade, of of the university, became more confpicuous, when he was placed at the head of the firft feminary in the metropolis; and, at the fame time, his talents as a preacher were witnessed and approved by fome of the principal auditories of the realm! Attainments fuch as these, and a life that adorned them, rendered him a fit object for Bonner's hatred; but Providence refcued him from the fangs of the tiger, in the very act of fpringing upon his prey. Habuerunt virtutes fpatium exemplorum." Retirement, fuffering, and ftudy, in the company of Jewell, Grindal, and Sandys, ftimulated by the converfation and example of Peter Martyr, and other famed divines of Germany, returned him to his native land, with reunited vigour and increafing luftre, when the days of tyranny were overpaft. "Elizabeth, and her fage counfellor-Burghley, placed him at once in an eminent fituation among thofe of fecondary rank in the church, and accumulated other preferments upon him; and would probably have advanced him to the epifcopal bench, had not his real modefty, together with the confcioufnefs of approaching old age, been known to have created in him a fixt determination not to be raifed to a ftation of greater dignity; which however, all things confidered, could fcarcely, in his cafe, have been a fphere of greater usefulness. Near to his friend and patron, Bishop Grindal, near alfo to his other illuftri ous friend and patron, the excellently pious and prudent Archbishop Parker, and not distant from the court, he was an able coadjutor to each and to all, in bringing forward and perfecting, what they all had at heart, the restoration of true and pure religion. It is indeed impoffible to view him, in the depart.. ment affigned him, without love and admiration. Meek, retired, and unobtrufive, he is ready at every call of duty; he is folicited from all quarters, and on all occafions. If a fermon on fome great emergence is to be preached at the crofs, at court, or before parliament, Nowell is the preacher. If the relentless hand of death has deprived the nation of one of its brightest ornaments, of either fex, an Afcham, a Sidney, or a Cecil, he is requested to confole the furviving relatives in a funera difcourfe, and to convert the common example and benefit. When the beautiful and lofty fpire of St. Paul's, by a ftroke from heaven, is laid in afhes, the dean is the perfon, who fuccefsfully exhorts the generous citizens to a speedy reparation of the facred edifice. When the proud armada has been defeated, he is selected to announce in the house of God the unparalleled victory; and to prepare the public mind for public thanks. If donations are fo licited for the univerfity in which he was not educated, at the hands of those who are ever ready to give, the opulent merchants and inhabitants, of the metropolis, their thoughts are ‣ immediately immediately fixed upon Mr. Nowell, and he is defired to be treasurer of the bounty. When contributions are requested for diftreffed Proteftants abroad, those of firft rank and influence in the nation, withing to forward the object of the petition, par ticularly defire the aid and advice of Nowell. man. "His own art of angling fuggefts the true character of the Placid and contemplative, and ftudious of peace, he loved to pafs the day on the margin of the river; and in his adopted motto, 'Pifcator hominum,' doubtlefs had an eye to thofe fons of peace, whom from this irreprovable employment' the Sa. viour of the World called to be his difciples; of whom it is obferved, that they have the priority of nomination in the catalogue of the Apoftles.' Whether it is true, as the honeft and ingenious Walton, a man of kindred meeknefs and piety, obferves, in his Contemplative Man's Recreation,' that angling is like poetry, and a perfon must be born to it, I fhall not in quire Nowell certain y felt the propenfity early, and threw his youthful line in his native rivers, the Calder and the Ribble. Placed, in later life, at a distance (the frequent lot of clergymen) from thefe his juvenile haunts, his father long ago deceafed, his mother, under the legatine difpenfation of Cardinal Wolfey, married again, and became the parent of another family; though he constantly correfponded with his friends in Lancafaire, he feldom had leifure perfonally to vifit them, and then rather to draw fhoals of men with the net of the gofpel, than to take a folitary fith with a hook. In his parish of Hadham there was fcope at once for ferious duties and innocent recreation. On the banks of the Afh he meditated penitence, gratitude, and charity; making it his practice to give a tenth part of his revenue, and ufually all his fifh, to the poor. "As a Divine he was not one of thofe Strawberry Preachers,' defcribed by one of his own days, in a Sermon at the Crofs, which come once in the year.' He was a conftant, and he was a fuccefsful preacher: for his fermons were unlike thofe of certain feeming and fun-burnt minifters,' of whom his friend Afcham fpeaks; whofe learning is gotten in a fummer heat, and washed away with a Christmas fnow again. His learning was folid, polihed, and durable; his words full of matter, drawn without violence from the fcriptures of truth, and their beft interpreters--the early fathers; and enlivened by examplesof ancient and of modern days. He had the honefty of Latimer, and a portion of his familiarity, without his quaintnefs and oc cafional coarfenefs. In whatever light we view him, we fee the lineaments and proportion of a true Son of the Church of England. Dignity and fimplicity are the characteristics of her fervice and ordinances; piety and plain dealing is the character of Nowell. "Generous and kind to his numerous relatives, grave without aufterity in his public deportment, condefcending without mean nefs nefs in his intercourfe with others, cheerful without levity at his hofpitable board, he is formed for all times, and conciliates all hearts; dextrous alike to detain the ear of friendship and enliven focial converfe with anecdotes of paft occurrences and outlandish cuftoms, or, as occafion invites, to throw in truths of higher import, or, as duty calls, to confole the bed of ficknefs, and elevate the departing foul from earth to heaven. But if in this fummary as in life, Religion has precedence, her faithful handmaid-Erudition, muft not be overlooked or forgotten and here Nowell ranks with the very first men of his time-with Afcham and Smith, with Grindal and Parker, with Cox and Jewell. His juft fame in this refpect, together with his known humanity, wifdo:n, and experience, caufed his advice and af fiftance to be requested in behalf of almost every feminary of learning established in his time; and when a work of ingenuity, or literary labour, is to come abroad, the recommendation of the venerable Dean of St. Paul's is ftudioufly prefixed to it, as a paffport to public favour and acceptance and dedications wait upon him, as if he had to beftow the dignities of the church, or the patronage of the crown. To encourage genius and draw forth humble merit, his own labours, time, and talents, were uniformly devoted; fecuring to himself an honourable place in the memory and gratitude of mankind, while the right inftitation of youth is regarded as an object of prime concernment; and the fociety, which he augmented by his munificence and adorned by his example, fhall, by the fupport of its friends, the vigilance of its governors, and the bleffing of providence, continue to flourish." P. 377. An appendix is added, containing fixteen articles, in which are letters, papers, and evidences, many of them never before printed. Among thefe are the pedigree of Nowell, verfes on Nowell, and fome of his letters, his will, and the difpenfation of Wolfey for the marriage of the Dean's mother, and Charles Townley, Elq. The following fonnet, as it is called, being from an exceedingly rare book, we are induced to infert. "Sonnet addreffed to Nowell, from Ecglog's Epytaphes and Sonnettes, newly written by Barnabe Googe: 1563,' in Black Letter, Signat. E. 5. b. in the Library of Richard Heber, Ejq. To MAYSTER ALEXANDER NOWELL. The Mufes ioye*, and well they may to fe, So well theyr laboure com to good fucceffe, * The lines are divided, each of them, after the fecond foot, or fourth fyllable, even if it happens in the middle of a word; a peculiarity, for the convenience, perhaps, of the printer, on a fmall page, which it did not feem neceflary to retain. P. 400. That That they fuftayned long agoe in the, Minerua fmyles, Phebus can do no leffe, Bat over all, they chyefly do reioyse, That leauyng thyngs, which are but fond and vayne, And haue the blys of God, when we be gone. Is this but onely Scriptures for to reade? No, no. Not talke, but lyfe gyues this in deade.” At the conclufion of the volume, and preceding an excellent index, are two pages of additions and corrections. In one of them, in which an intimation on Edward the Sixth's Catechifm, faid by Mr. Beloe in his 3d volume of Anecdotes, to have been written by Nowell. This Mr. Churton, in a loofe and general way, appears to queftion. We could have wifhed that he had condefcended to give his reasons of doubt. The volume contains fome beautiful engravings, among which are the portraits of Nowell, of Mr. Townley, Whitaker, and of Mrs. Frankland, that great benefactor to both our Universities, are exquifitely finished. The whole forms a very elegant, interefting, and important publication. ART. VI. A Catalogue of the Library of the Royal Inftitution of Great Britain, methodically arranged, with an alphabetical Index of Authors. By William Harris, Keeper of the Library. 8vo. 15s. Payne, 1809. THERE HERE is perhaps no precedent for introducing the no tice of a mere catalogue in the leading part, or indeed in any former part of our Review; but we think fo highly of the execution of this volume, and with, fo well to the inftitution, whofe library is here admirably defcribed, that we have no reluctance in thus placing it before our readers. However fciolifts may affect to contemn either the compilers or the readers of fuch performances, they who are better informed do not require to be told, that not only a confiderable degree of talent is requifite for the due per formance |