ignorance, was reviled by the bishop as a seducer of men, and was forthwith suspended from his benefice, &c.

On the 24th of June, 1385, the illustrious William de Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, caused Sir Roger Dene, Rector of the church of St. Michael, in Jewry-street, Winchester, to swear upon the Holy Gospels that he would learn within twelve months the articles of faith; the cases reserved to the bishop; the Ten Commandments; the seven works of mercy; the seven mortal sins; the sacraments of the Church, and the form of administering and conferring them; and also the form of baptizing, &c., as contained in the Constitutions of Archbishop Peckham;-under the penalty of forty shillings, to be distributed as alms by the bishop.

On the 2nd of July, in the same year, the bishop exacted from John Corbet, Rector of Bradley, Hants., a similar obligation, that he should learn the same before the feast of St. Michael then next ensuing.

Roger Dene (late Rector of Ryston, Norfolk) was instituted by Henry Spencer, Bishop of Norwich, to the aforesaid church of St. Michael's, in the city of Winchester, on the 21st of June, 1385, vice Galfrid Chauntrell, its late Rector, who exchanged.

Sir John Corbet was instituted to the parish church of Bradley by William de Wykeham, at Farnham, June 2, 1385.

In 1570, the Dean and Chapter of Winchester were ordered to procure a virtuous and learned man, to read a divinity lecture twice a week in Winchester Cathedral, to the Dean

and Canons, and the clergy of the city and college, "who were diligently to hear and note the same, and each of them shall be monthly examined by the said reader, how they have marked and remembered such points of doctrine as he hath read unto them, and are meet for their capacities."

The Minor Canons were every week to commit to memory one chapter of St. Paul's epistles in Latin, and to be examined by the said divinity reader, who was to make "a report of their profiting to the ordinary."

In 1572, the clergy of the different deaneries in the diocese were ordered to learn by heart the first epistle of St. Paul to Timothy. I will quote the Andover entry as a specimen :

"In parlurâ Hospitii Le Hart, apud Andevere, toto clero hujus decanatûs convocato.

"Dominus injunxit eisdem omnibus et singulis ad discendum memoriter, primam epistolam Pauli ad Timotheum, ut valeant reddere compertum cum vocati et requisiti fuerint."

In the following year they were all ordered to learn the Second Epistle to Timothy. Similar notices of later date may be quoted, shewing the anxiety to inculcate a knowledge of the Holy Scrip

tures.

In 1618, William Elmes, Vicar of Hurstborne Priors, was summoned to appear in the Consistory Court of Winchester, "for losing the Common Prayer Book, and neglecting to say service in consequence thereof."-I am, &c.,

FRANCIS JOSEPH BAIGENT.
Winchester, Nov. 15, 1864.

SIR,-As a learned and diligent antiquary, an able medical author, and a zealous and indiscreet partisan of the house of Stuart, the name of Dr. John Burton of York is invested with a certain interest which is enhanced by the probable supposition that he was the original of Sterne's Dr. Slop.

Erroneous statements are current

respecting the time and place of his birth.

Mr. Chalmers (Biog. Dict. vii. 247,) says that he was born in 1697, which date is adopted by Mr. Nichols, ("Illustrations of Literature," iii. 375,) and by Watt. (Bibl. Brit.) Now he died Jan. 19, 1771, and the inscription on his monument in the church of Trinity

Micklegate at York specifies that he was aged 62, (Hist. of York, 1788, ii. 198). It will be seen hereafter that he was really only in his 61st year.

The Rev. John Bigland, ("Beauties of England and Wales," xvi. 807, n.) avers that he was a native of Wakefield. Mr. Chalmers says he was born at Ripon, and recently Mr. Cryer has stated with marvellous confidence that he was un. doubtedly born at Heath, (Lupton's "Wakefield Worthies," p. 253).

He was admitted a pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, June 19, 1727, being then aged 18 and upwards, according to the college register which describes him as the son of John Burton, merchant, born at Colchester and educated at Merchant Taylors' School.

From information kindly supplied by the Rev. Dr. Hessey, the Head Master of Merchant Taylors', it appears that Burton's name only occurs in the Probation Book of that school on March 11, 1725-6. He was in the fifth form, which was then the highest but one. The entry is "John Burton, born June 9, 1710, entered the school Nov. 2, 1725, now six months in this form." The next Probation List is that of Sept. 14, 1726. It is probable therefore that he quitted the school on the Election Day, June 11, 1726.

It is certain that his mother was buried at All Saints, Colchester, and that he had a brother Christopher who was baptized there; (Lupton's "Wakefield Worthies," p. 253). We find that Christopher Burton, son of John Burton, merchant, born at Colchester and educated at Merchant Taylors' school, was admitted a pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, April 23, 1728, aged 17 and upwards. He proceeded B.A. 1731-2, and commenced M.A. 1735.

John Burton proceeded M.B. at Cambridge in due course in 1733. In the Preface to Mon. Ebor. he thus alludes to his having been at St. John's :

"From the time I went to St. John's College at Cambridge, I had a kind of natural curiosity to penetrate into the darkest and most remote state of my country in general."

GENT. MAG. 1864, VOL. II.

Mr. Bigland says he finished his studies at Edinburgh. This is probable. At any rate he contributed a short paper to the "Edinburgh Medical Essays," v. 278.

Mr. Chalmers avers that he was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. This is hardly likely to be correct, as he was only in his seventeenth year when he became a member of St. John's at Cambridge, and although there is an interval of a year between his leaving Merchant Taylors' School and his going to St. John's, yet if he had been at Oxford in the meantime, one cannot understand why the fact was not stated in his admission at St. John's. Under the statutes of the University then in force, it was necessary for the degree of M.B. that he should have resided in Cambridge for the major part of nine terms, and have completed his fifth year from admission.

The ascertained facts respecting his birth and education may be thus sum. med up-He was son of John Burton merchant, by Margaret, daughter of John Leake, Vicar of Warmfield, and was born at Colchester, June 9, 1710. He was at Merchant Taylors' School from Nov. 2, 1725, to about June 11, 1726, and on June 19, 1727 was admitted a pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, as a member of which house he took the degree of M.B. 1733. He proceeded M.D. at Rheims in or before 1738.

We submit that Dr. Burton must hereafter be reckoned amongst the Worthies of Essex, although, undoubtedly, from his important but unfinished work on the Yorkshire Monasteries, his name will ever be most honourably associated with the great county in which he so long resided.

There is a curious notice of Dr. Burton in that very strange book, James Atkinson's "Medical Bibliography." Mr. Atkinson's father was intimate with the Doctor, and Mr. Atkinson himself recollected him and his mischievous monkey. C. H. AND THOMPSON COOPER. Cambridge, Nov. 11, 1864.

5 A

The Gnostics and their Remains, Ancient and Mediaval. By C. W. KING, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Author of "Antique Gems." (Bell and Daldy.) This is a handsome volume, evidently the fruit of much research, and being (except Walsh's meagre epitome of Beausobre) the only English work on the Gnostics, it deserves and will repay close examination. Mr. King maintains

that most of the doctrines ascribed to the early heretics were no inventions of theirs, as the Christian Fathers very generally seem to assert, but had their origin in India, and had extended thence to Egypt long before the birth of Our Lord. The work, in support of this view, goes into details of the various early systems of religion, and discusses many of the questions as to symbolism, serpent-worship, charms, talismans, incantations, &c., that have long divided the learned world, and in its fac-simile engravings of the Gnostic gems it supplies a help for the solution of some of them. The author's former book on Gems shews how competent he is to describe accurately, and to draw generally acceptable conclusions; and though, of necessity, theological questions arise in his present work, which did not appear heretofore, he treats them succinctly, and carefully avoids a controversial tone. Our antiquarian readers will probably be most interested in his remarks on the case of the Templars; he inclines to the idea that the charge of their holding Gnostic doctrines had more foundation in fact than modern writers in general ascribe to it; he thinks much the same of the Albigenses; and, if we gather his meaning aright, the modern Freemasons are liable to the same charge. Any discussion of these points would occupy far more space than we can at present afford, and we must therefore leave them in the hands of readers

Lives of the Stephensons. Men who have been the instruments of effecting so mighty a change in almost every relation of life as the Stephensons have undoubtedly done-no matter who originated, or who helped, they were the prime agents may not unreasonably have a brace of biographers at one time. The works mentioned below a are calculated to give between them all the information that need be had. It will be seen that Mr. Smiles, who was first in the field, has taken Stephenson the elder for his hero, and has made his son but the second figure on his canvas; Mr. Jeaffreson has, unwisely we think, reversed this. Still there is substantial agreement in their pictures, though one is usually brief where the other is elaborate. Mr. Jeaffreson, we must suppose, has not been in any way indebted to his predecessor, as he makes no mention of the Story, but he has called to his aid Mr. Pole, the civil engineer, and we have therefore a more detailed account of the Menai, the High Level, and the Victoria Bridges, in his two 8vo. volumes, than Mr. Smiles can find room for in his work, of one-fourth the size and price of the other. On the other hand, Mr. Smiles has the advantage of

"The Story of the Life of George Stephenson, including a Memoir of his Son, Robert Stephenson. By Samuel Smiles, Author of 'Industrial Biography,' &c. New Edition, thoroughly Revised." (John Murray.)

"The Life of Robert Stephenson, F.R.S., &c., late President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. By J. C. Jeaffreson, Barrister-atLaw. With Descriptive Chapters on some of his most important Professional Works, by William Pole, F.R.S., M.C.E." 2 vols., 8vo. (Longmans.)

treating the whole of his subject himself, and few beside professional men will require more than he tells them. He displays, indeed, much tact in dealing with his subject, and his hints at engineering details, whilst sufficient for the under

standing of the matter he is speaking of, never prevent his volumes being really pleasant reading. Of this we have another example in his latest work, on the early engineers, which is abridged from his "Lives of the Engineers," and which in a very small compass gives a most readable account of the drainage of the Fens,

the formation of the New River, and the rise of the canal system, not only in England but in France. So valuable a little work on such subjects we believe has never before been produced.

Tracts for the Christian Seasons: being Readings for every Sunday and Holy day in the Year. With an Introductory Tract on Inspiration. Third Series. Conducted by the Rev. JAMES RUSSELL WOODFORD, M.A., Vicar of Kempsford, Gloucestershire. (Oxford and London: John Henry and James Parker.)-This series is now complete, in four small volumes. It contains nearly one hundred tracts; and when we mention that among the writers of them are found the Bishop of Oxford, the Bishop Coadjutor of Edinburgh, Archdeacon Bickersteth, Rev. Drs. Goulburn, Moberly, Hessey (late Bampton Lecturer), Prebendary Freeman, Rev. Messrs. Claughton, Walsham How, and C. E. Kennaway, we have said enough to shew that it is as fully adapted to the demands of the day, as the first and second series, issued ten years ago under the supervision of the late Bishop Armstrong, of Graham's

"James Brindley and the Early Engineers. By Samuel Smiles, Author of Self-Help,' &c. Abridged from Lives of the Engineers.'" (John Murray.)

town, were so generally allowed to be, to the peculiar circumstances of those times.

Faith and Life. Readings for the Greater Holy days and the Sundays from Advent to Trinity. Compiled from Ancient Writers, with Notes on “ Eternal Judgment" and Christ's Sacrifice. By WILLIAM BRIGHT, M.A., Fellow and Assistant Tutor of University College, Oxford. (Rivingtons.) - Mr. Bright's profound acquaintance with the Fathers, as evidenced by his "Ancient Collects," has enabled him to enrich our devotional literature with a volume, which is small, but very precious. It is intended as a help to religious thought in harmony with the Church service for each day, for which Readings are given, extending in the present volume from Advent to Trinity Sunday, and it is intended to be followed by another to complete the cycle of the Christian year. Many of the readings are from St. Augustine or St. Chrysostom, but St. Athanasius, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Cyprian, St. Cyril of Alexandria, and St. Bernard also contribute to them, and some passages have been taken from the Ambrosian and the Parisian Breviaries.

British North America. With Maps. (Religious Tract Society.)-In view of the confederation of the great colonies that remained faithful to the British crown, which is now in progress, this little volume is calculated to be very useful. It contains really well-written notices of their history, topography, climate, productions, &c., and has several neat maps; altogether it is calculated to give just the information that most readers require when countries hitherto but little known become, from the course of events, subjects of general interest.