in external nature, and that he could pourtray his impressions with force, and grace, and delicacy. "Steele's personal devotion to O'Connell is proverbial. Although a Protestant himself, he fitted up an apartment in his house in the county Clare as a chapel to be used for the celebration of mass whenever he should be visited by his "mighty leader," as he delighted to call O'Connell. He combined with this tribute to his political chief, his own devotion to Celtic antiquity; for the altar of the domestic chapel was a large, rude block of stone, which for ages had remained in the woods, grey, moss-grown, and solitary; and which was averred by a somewhat vague tradition to have been used in pagan times for Druidical rites, and subsequently for the celebration of the Roman Catholic worship in the days of penal persecution. "Steele's declaration has been often quoted, that if O'Connell desired him to sit upon a mine about to be sprung, he would implicitly obey the mandate.' This, which from other lips would be hypocritical exaggeration, was with Tom Steele the strict, literal truth. Those who best knew him, best can testify the implicit nature of his faith in O'Connell's integrity and wisdom. He deemed his incarceration as a fellow-conspirator' with O'Connell, the proudest honour of his life." THE TONSONS. THE Tonsons were a race of booksellers who did honour to their profession for integrity, and by their encouragement of authors. The first notice we have been able to obtain of them is, that Jacob Tonson was the son of Jacob, a barber-surgeon in Holborn, who died in 1668, bequeathing to his sons Richard and John, and to their three sisters, 100l. each, when they should attain the age of 21. Jacob was apprenticed, June 5, 1670, to Thomas Basset, bookseller; and having been admitted a freeman of the Company of Stationers, Dec. 20, 1677, commenced business, as his brother Richard had done the year before. The first edition of The Spanish Friar (1681), was "printed for Richard and Jacob Tonson, at Gray's-Inn Gate, in Gray's-Inn lane; and at the Judge's Head in Chancery-lane." To the laudable industry of Mr. Malone, the curious reader is indebted for the publication of several letters from Dryden to Jacob Tonson, and of one from Tonson to the poet, which considerably illustrate the history of both. The first of these was in 1684, preparatory to printing of the second volume of those "Miscellany Poems," which are equally known by the name of Dryden and of Tonson, and is written in terms of great familiarity, with thanks for two melons. Tonson's letter is perfectly the Tradesman's-pleased with the translations of Ovid, which he had received for the Third Miscellany, but not with the price, having only 1446 lines for 50 guineas, when he expected to have had at the rate of 1518 lines for 40 guineas; adding that he had a better bargain with "Juvenal, which is reckoned not so easy to translate as Ovid." Most of the other letters relate to the translation of Virgil, and contain repeated acknowledgments of Tonson's kind attention. "I thank you heartily" (he says), "for the sherry; it was the best of the kind I ever drank." The current coin was at that period wretchedly debased. In one letter Dryden says, "I expect forty pounds in good silver; not such as I had formerly. I am not obliged to take gold, neither will I; nor stay for it above four-and-twenty hours after it is due." Some little bickerings occasionally passed between the author and his bookseller; but they do not seem to have produced any lasting ill-will on either side. In 1698, when Dryden published his Fables, Tonson agreed to give him 2687. for 10,000 verses; and, to complete the full number of lines stipulated for, he gave the bookseller the Epistle to his Cousin, and the celebrated Music Ode. "The conduct of traders in general in the 17th century," as Mr. Malone observes, "was less liberal, and their manners more rugged, than at present; and hence we find Dryden sometimes speaking of Tonson with a degree of asperity that confirms an ancedote communicated to Dr. Johnson, by Dr. King, of Oxford; to whom Lord Bolingbroke related, that one day, when he visited Dryden, they heard, as they were conversing, another person entering the house. This (said Dryden), is Tonson: you will take care not to depart before he goes away, for I have not completed the sheet which I promised him; and, if you leave me unprotected, I shall suffer all the rudeness to which his resentment can prompt his tongue.' On another occasion, Tonson having refused to advance him a sum of money for a work on which he was employed, he sent a second messenger to the bookseller, with a very satirical triplet; adding, "Tell the dog, that he who wrote these lines can write more." These descriptive verses, which had the desired effect, by some means got abroad in_manuscript; and, not long after Dryden's death, were inserted in "Faction Displayed," a satirical poem supposed to have been written by William Shippen, which, from its virulent abuse of the opposite party, was extremely popular among the Tories. By his success in trade, Mr. Tonson had acquired a sufficient sum to purchase an estate near Ledbury, in Herefordshire. In the year 1703 he went to Holland, for the purpose of procuring paper, and getting engravings made for the splendid edition of Cæsar's Commentaries, which he published, under the care of Dr. Clarke, in 1712: perhaps the most magnificent work that has been issued from the English press. In 1719, Mr. Tonson made an excursion to Paris, where he spent several months, and was fortunate enough to gain a considerable sum by adventuring in the Mississippi scheme. In consequence of his attachment to the Whigs, he obtained, in 1719-20, probably by the patronage of the Duke of Newcastle and Secretary Cragg, a grant to himself and his nephew, Jacob Tonson, junior, who was the son of his elder brother, Richard, of the office of stationer, bookbinder, bookseller, and printer, to some of the principal public Boards and great Offices, for the term of forty years; and not long afterwards (1722), he assigned and made over the whole benefit of this grant to the nephew; who, in 1733, obtained from Sir Robert Walpole a farther grant of the same employment for forty years more, to commence at the expiration of the former term,-a very lucrative appointment, which was enjoyed by the Tonson family, or their assigns, till the month of January, 1800. From about the year 1720, the elder Tonson seems to have transferred his business to his nephew; and lived principally on his estate in Herefordshire, till 1736, when he died, probably about eighty years old. From his will, which was made Dec. 3, 1735, and proved April 9, 1736, it appears that he had estates in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. THE TOMBS OF PETERSHAM AND TWICKENHAM. "The grave-dread thing! Well do I know thee by thy trusty yew, Embodied thick perform their mystic rounds."-BLAIR. ENCOURAGED by the interesting memorials that abound in Richmond Church, one is naturally led to visit other places of interment in the neighbourhood of a locality so famous. Below Richmond hill lie two villages, which form part of its incomparable landscape, and which are themselves as rich in byegone recollections as they are beautiful in their scenery. These are Petersham and Twickenham; the one boasting its aristocratic associations, the other no less proud in the memory of Alexander Pope. Petersham, a hamlet of mansions, has been and is still a place of dignified retirement to peers and men of high degree; Twickenham, lesser and yet greater, has been the Muses' haunt, and is, altogether, classic ground. The churchyards in these two villages partake of the peculiar characteristics of cach: that of Petersham speaks of rank and pedigree mouldering into dust; while poetry and the drama hover in gentle, pleasing remembrance around the graves of Twickenham. To give an account of both, let us commence with the nearest to Richmond Hill, that of Petersham churchyard, which lies at its very foot, and which may be approached by a short walk across the meadows. Among the monuments that crowd the interior of this church, we would point out those of the following persons of rank and note; viz.— GENERAL GORDON FORBES, of Skellow, Aberdeenshire, late of Ham Common, Colonel of Her Majesty's Regiment of 29th Foot, who died the 17th January, 1828, in the 90th year of his age, and is here interred with his wife. The stone is raised by his surviving children. SIR GEORGE SCOTT, of Gala, Vice-Admiral of the Red, K.C.B., who died the 21st December, 1841. A tablet placed by his wife. THOMAS GILBERT, armiger, of an ancient family, who died in 1706, a scholar and a poet. SIR THOMAS JENNER, Sergeant-at-Law, who died in 1706, and who was the son of that high Tory Judge in the reign of James II., Sir Thomas Jenner, who was excepted out of the Act of Indemnity in 1690. The REVEREND MARK DELAFOSSE, for near forty years the pious, learned, and exemplary minister of this parish; the stone is erected by the inhabitants of Petersham; his relict is here interred with him. LADY KATHERINE HALKETT, daughter of the fourth Earl of Selkirk, and wife of John Halkett, Esq. CAROLINE MARIA, DUCHESS DOWAGER OF MONTROSE, widow of James, third Duke of Montrose, and daughter of George, fourth Duke of Manchester. CAPTAIN GEORGE VANCOUVER, who made a voyage round the world. The stone is erected by the Hudson Bay Company. SIR CHARLES STUART, K.B., M.P., conqueror and Governor of Minorca, fourth son of John, the celebrated Earl of Bute, and father of Lord Stuart de Rothsay: his wife, Louisa, daughter and coheir of Lord Vere Bertie, is here interred with him. In the churchyard there is a very handsome tomb, erected to the second Earl of Mount Edgecumbe, with this graceful inscription: "Richard, Earl of Mount Edgecumbe, is buried here; who, during a great part of his life, chose this neighbourhood for a residence, and dying at Richmond, desired that his mortal remains should not be borne to the distant tomb of his ancestors, but be deposited in this churchyard. Let us hope that his immortal part may mingle thus with rich and poor, in that abode prepared by Christ, alike for all who trust in him. Among the other external tombs, we remarked those of MARIA LADY BUCK, daughter and coheir of George Cartwright, Esq., of Ossington, Notts, and widow of Sir Charles Buck, Bart., with whom the baronetcy became extinct. The stone is raised by her nephew, Sir H. G. Englefield, Bart., of Wotton Basset, now also an extinct baronetcy. MAJOR-GENERAL SIR JEREMIAH BRYANT. The HON. GEO. MURRAY, son of Alexander, eighth Lord Elibank. LADY FRANCES CAROLINE DOUGLAS, daughter of the fifth Marquess of Queensberry, who died in her fifteenth year. HARRIET, MARCHIONESS OF LOTHIAN, daughter of Henry, third Duke of Buccleuch, and second wife of William, sixth Marquess of Lothian. The tomb is raised by her children. The REV. DR. SAMPSON, rector of Groton, and his wife, who died, the former in 1826, the latter in 1839. CAPTAIN F. HALLIDAY, R.N., who died at Caen, in Normandy, the 25th July, 1830; his wife, who died in 1840, being buried here. The REV. THOMAS MONK, Professor of Divinity and Belles Lettres, in the Royal College of Vendome, who died at Paris, the 15th April, 1809. The stone is erected by Hugh Monk, Esq. ANNE BLACHFORD, widow of Captain Geo. Blachford, who was lost, with all on board, at the foundering of the Foulis, East Indiaman, in 1791. She died in 1846, aged 90. Sir JOHN DARNELL, Sergeant-at-Law. Let us now quit Petersham Churchyard, and turn our steps towards that of Twickenham. From Richmond there are various roads thither, and every one of them rich in poetic and historic recollections. Mackay, in his "Thames and its Tributaries, thus pleasantly describes one way : Descending the terrace and crossing the bridge, how pleasant is the walk along the Middlesex bank of the river to the village of Twickenham, and its old grey church, where Pope lies buried! But pleasanter still is it to take a boat and be rowed up the middle of the stream, unlocking the stores of memory as we pass, and saying to ourselves-" Here on the right lived Bacon; yonder, at West Sheen, lived Sir William Temple; and there was born the celebrated Stella; and at the same place Swift first made her acquaintance. And here, again, is Marble Hall, where the beauteous Lady Suffolk kept open house for all the wits of the neighbourhood. Among the most conspicuous of the places we pass there is a neat little rural hut, called " Gray's Summer-house," where, according to tradition, that amiable poet wrote his celebrated Fables for the infant Duke of Cumberland, currying court favour, but getting nothing but neglect for his pains. "Dear Pope," he wrote to his brother poet, "what a barren soil have I been striving to produce something out of! Why did I not take your advice, before my writing fables for the Duke, not to write them, or rather to write them for some young nobleman. It is my hard fate-I must get nothing, write for or against them." Poor Gray! Too well he knew, as Spenser so feelingly sings in his "Mother Hubbard's Tale: " "What hell it was in suing long to bide, To lose good days that might be better spent ; Yet one cannot help thinking, after all, that it served him right; for, according to his own confession, he was ready to wield his pen either for or against the court, as might be most profitable. Who but must regret that a man of his genius should ever have been reduced to so pitiful an extremity? Who but must sigh that he should, even to his bosom friend, have made such a confession? At a short distance beyond Gray's summerhouse, and on the same side of the river, stands "Ham House," formerly the residence of the noted Duke of Lauderdale, and where he and his four colleagues, Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, and Arlington held those secret meetings, which acquired for them a name infamous in English history-"The Cabal,”—a word which their initials happened to compose. In the house, now the residence of the Countess of Dysart, are preserved many memorials of the Lauderdale family. According to tradition this is one of the places in which Charles the Second took refuge after the battle of Worcester; and it is also said that the great gate leading to the Ham Avenue, has never been opened to any meaner visitor since the hour when the fugitive King, after he left the Wood of Boscobel, was admitted within it for a night's shelter. Another tradition, which is still more questionable, asserts that here also, as at Boscobel, he hid himself among the branches of an oak to escape a party of his eager pursuers. A shattered trunk of a tree in Ham Lane was formerly shewn to the visitor as the identical Royal Oak: and a fair, which is annually held on the spot, on the 29th of May, has tended to countenance the belief among the people of the neighbourhood, who have no notion that any incredulous and too precise examiner into dates and facts should deprive them of their traditions. However, “truth is strong," and truth compels us to say, that their Royal Oak is only a counterfeit. From Petersham, however, the way is to proceed by the Surrey river side, pass Ham House, of historic and cavalier note, and cross the ferry. The first object that strikes us is Twickenham church and its picturesque |