Mr. URBAN,

THE

Νου. 9. THE following account of the Nobility of Venice, which I accidentally perused in Moreri's Dictionary some short time since, appears to me so interesting, that I make no apology for sending it to be reprinted in your Magazine, as an accompaniment to the lately published history of the Nobility of Genoa (see pp. 195, 298).

Of the Venetian Nobility. "It is divided into four classes; the first contains the families of the twelve Tribunes, who were the Electors of the first Doge of the Republic, who by a sort of miracle have been preserved from the year 709 (that of the election) to the present day.*

"These twelve houses, called Electoral, are the Contarini, Morosini, Badouari, Tiepoli, Micheli, Sanudi, Gradenighi, Memmi, Falieri, Dandoli, Polani, and Barozzi. After these twelve Electoral families are four nearly as antient, having signed the contract of foundation of the abbey of St. George the Greater, with the twelve preceding houses, in the year 800. These are the Justiniani, Cornari, Bragadini, and Bembi.

"There are also eight other very ancient houses, who rank amongst the Nobles of the first class, namely, the Quirini, the Delfini, &c. The second Order of Venetian Nobility is for the families of those who began to be written in the Golden Book, or Catalogue of Nobility, when the Doge Gradenigo established the Aristocracy, or Council of Chiefs, in 1289; and as there are several centuries that these houses have existed, their Nobility is much esteemed. In this rank are the Mocineghi,

* 1753.

Capeli, Foscarini, &c. The third class of Nobility comprehends about eighty families, who have bought their Nobility at the price of 100,000 ducats, paid to the Republic, to enable them to carry on their wars against the Turks. These Nobles have no part in the high offices of the Republic. There is a fourth sort of Nobility which the Republic gives to princes, or persons illustrious for their merit. Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth of France were thus added to the Venetian No. bility. Almost all the princes of Italy have thus wished to be received as Nobles of Venice. The principal families of Italy who possess this title are, the Pio, Malahestes, Bentivoglio, Martipengues, Collaltes, Benzoni, and Sa

votnians."

li

Since the preceding extract was writ ten, this passage has been met with in Sinclair's Autuma in Italy in 1827. "The Nobility is divided into four classes; and it is not a little surprising that until within a a very few years, neal descendants of all the twelve Tribunes of the first class, who elected the first Doge in the eighth century, were in existence. Even the second class, those whose names are found in the Golden Book of the Aristocracy, established in 1289, is, with very few exceptions, more ancient than our oldest English Nobility, and yet this is one of the newest states of Italy. Such is the comparative antiquity of different countries, or rather families."

I hope shortly to send you some particulars of the extraordinary wealth of the Genoese Nobles. S. G.

Maize Hill.

suas.

1830.]

Mr. UREAN,

Bitton Vicarage, June 8.

ALLOW me to request your assistance in preserving on record some recollection of OLDLAND CHAPEL, which has lately been taken down to be rebuilt on a larger scale; a southwest view of it accompanies this letter. (See Plate 1.) Oldland is a Chapel of Ease to Bitton, situated in South Gloucestershire. Within the bounda ries of the Chapelry (or hamlet as it is here called) is a great part of Kings wood Chace, adjoining to which, about a mile from the Chapel, are the remains of an extensive mansion, for. merly belonging to the Newtons, called Barr's Court, where, in "a fayre old mannar place of stone, Mastar New ton's House," Leland rested awhile on his way from Bath to Bristol.

After much search and inquiry, no records have been found relative to the date or origin of the foundation of this Chapel. It is not mentioned either in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, or in that of Henry the Eighth. Before the Reformation the parish of Bitton was in the diocese of Worcester; and there I have found a reference to " Bytton cum Capella de Oldelond," in Bp. Giffard's time, about 1280. Though in the index, it is not to be found in the register.

The south doorway and porch were in early English style, also the pillars and arches in the inside; and from fragments of mouldings, capitals, and bases, found in pulling down the walls, it is fair to conclude that the Chapel was in existence in the 13th century. The venerable yew tree, indeed, speaks

almost as much.

393

serve this Chapel, and another at Hanham in the same parish, every alternate

Sunday, having served the mother church at Bitton in the morning. But in 1817 a curate was licensed to these two chapels only.

By the last census, the whole parish contains 7,171 souls; 4,297 being within the Chapelry of Oldland.

In the year 1821 an ecclesiastical district was formed, and attached to a new Church (Holy Trinity) then built, which was consecrated the same year by the present Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, then Bishop of Gloucester. It was the first Church, I believe, consecrated, of those built by the Parliamentary Commissioners, by whose assistance, and that of the Church building Society, and a subscription, this good work was effected in the midst of a dense and increasing popu→ lation. Since that time a parsonage. house and a school-room have been built close to the new church.

John Wesley's celebrated school (an interesting account of which may be seen in his Life by Southey) is within the limits of this district.

The new Church will contain ac⚫ commodation for 370 persons, in addition to 230 before provided. The old chapel was so much dilapidated as to require thorough reparation. The pa rishioners having resolved to do it with enlargement, were enabled to carry their resolutions into effect, by a loan without interest, obtained from the Churchbuilding Commissioners, which the chapelry is to pay off by rate in ten years; also by a subscription in the neighbourhood, and a grant from the Church-building Society. Yours, &c.

H.T.ELLICOMBE.

Mr. URBAN, Mere, Wilts, Sept. 6. VOUR kindness in inserting my

former letter on the Corruptions of the English Language, has induced me to offer you another.

The causes which have brought on these corruptions are-1st, a mixture of nations by conquest; 2nd, a want of new words, felt by the learned on the extension of the sciences and arts; 3d, the carelessness of translators; and 4th, the pomp of smatterers, who are fond of putting forth scraps of several languages, which they would be thought to know: and, as a noble language does honour to the national mind, like

excellent works of genius or art, it may be worth while to inquire how far those causes might have been with stood, and how far their effects may yet be overcome.

:

The first cause is certainly irresisti ble outcomers bring their own language with them; and where there is a mixed population, there will be an impure speech; so that it is not of that foreign branch which the Normans ingrafted on the Teutonic stock of our mother tongue, that we have to treat. To the second cause I would not yield so readily. That the English did want new words as they found out new facts in science, or acquired new works of art, is clear enough but if they had been anxious to keep the purity of their language, it would have given them as good combinations as those they borrowed or made up from others. Unfortunately, while Greek, and the languages of the Latin family have been studied with particular care, German, and other Gothic dialects, which, (from having a like origin, throw light on our own,) have been almost wholly neglected; and as writers, in filling the deficiencies of their language, borrowed or copied only from such others as they knew, English has been losing its Gothic character ever since the revival of learning; but I really believe that when German and other Teutonic dialects begin to be studied by our writers, many of the Grecian and Italian additions that have been made to the Gothic structure of the English tongue will be put aside, and that it will be restored, in true antiquarian taste, to a state of consistency with the original plan.

The German language, which has not (like ours) been withdrawn from its Gothic mother, and nursed from tongues of a different family, has grown to maturity in such strength and symmetry as are not often outdone; giving us a fine example of what ours might have been, if fostered in a like manner, and convincing every man who reads a page of High Dutch, that to say the English language will not give good combinations, is to state a very great error.

So ill suited for the author's use was English thought little more than a century ago, that writings of that age very often hobble along on alternate sentences of Latin and English, like a man with a wooden leg; but with

this difference, that the writer considered the dead member (Latin) the stronger and the better.

The third cause of corruption that I named was the carelessness of translators. From not attending closely to the difference of idiom between the original language and their own, they often bring over their author's words instead of his meaning; and repeat his expres sions, instead of seeking their equals in English. In short, they make him seem what he really is; a foreigner speaking English; and (as if he did not know the English names of many things which are as common to us as to himself,) speaking a broken English by using words and expressions of his own mother tongue.

It is often said that this or that expression cannot be given in English, because we have no equivalent for it; an assertion which is in many cases groundless; because, for things that are common to any several nations, of course those nations have words: though we cannot suppose that Europeans found a name for the Kanga roo before they found the animal; or that we can trace the word orange to the old British language, rather than to the Vascuence in Spain.

Somebody once observed that no Frenchinan could be good-natured, because for good-nature the French had no word. By like reasoning, we should find that the English can never be about to do an action because they have no future participle, as the Latins had that they have nothing large in its kind, because they have no augmen tives, like the Italians; and that they can never keep repeating an action, because they have not the iterative branch of verbs, as the Russians. But the answer to all this is, that we treat these and many other things in a different way; a fact that every translator should bear in mind.

From the unwillingness of translators to find English idioms and words for foreign ones, we have such expres sions as "mis hors du combat," sent out of the battle; "in petto," in one's heart; "ennui," listlessness, &c.; and I saw an instance of this feeling, some time ago, in a translation of a German work, in which the idiom "Mit verhängten zügeln" was given, word for word, "with loose reins," instead of "in full gallop."

The last enemy of purity that I