522 
bring the work down to the passeres. That 
is, of the first division, the first class is com- 
pleted; and of the second, one order is 
“completed, and a considerable portion of 
a second — making about five volumes. 
The work will, of necessity, be of consider- 
able extent—but will be valuable precisely 
in proportion to that extent: a shorter pub- 
lication would have defeated the utility of the 
‘whole. But the ornamental part must not 
“be forgotten. The plates are worthy of the 
work—well and distinctly engraved—the 
figures of a good size—and some of the 
animals drawn and etched by Landseer. 
Historical Sketches of Charles I., &c., 
by W. D. Fellowes, Esq. Ato. ; 1828.— 
.This is the production of Mr. Fellowes of 
the chamberlain’s office, and dedicated to 
:the Right Honourable Priscilla Barbara 
‘Elizabeth Baroness Willoughby d’Eresby, 
‘and the Most Noble Georgina Charlotte 
-Marchioness of Cholmondeley, joint here- 
ditary Jord great chamberlain of England— 
-very dutifully, no doubt, but with what pos- 
sible propriety we could never have guessed 
without Mr. Fellowes’s assistance—it ap- 
pears, ‘‘all parties bear a willing testi- 
mony to the merits of Robert Earl of Lind- 
‘sey, and his son Montague, who nobly shed 
their blood on the disastrous fields of Edge- 
hill and Naseby, and therefore,’’ adds Mr. 
Fellowes, “it was natural for me to turn to 
your ladyships, who are the representatives 
of these illustrious chiefs, as those to whom 
this record of their virtues should be most 
fitly inscribed.’”’ Only eight or ten pages are 
occupied with those very subordinate .per- 
sonages—but dedication and nonsense seem 
of late, more than ever, inseparably coupled. 
The book itself is printed with a French 
type, to give an air of ancientness; and is 
said in the title page, to be printed ny John 
Murray, Albermarle Street, London—why 
this folly? But the utility of the whole 
concern is quite past all understanding. 
It consists, to take the detail of the title 
page, of Historical Sketches of Charles the 
First, Cromwell, Charles the Second, and 
the principal personages of that period— 
including the king’s trial and execution— 
to which is annexed ‘an account of the sums 
exacted by the commonwealth from the 
royalists—and ‘the names of all those who 
compounded for their estates—with other 
scarce documents—illustrated by fifty litho- 
graphic plates. The reader would of course 
expect from this parading statement, some- 
thing original both in composition and 
document, bat nothing of the first, and 
scarcely any thing of the last occurs. The 
sketches are taken chiefly from. Claren- 
don’s Life, and his history of the rebellion 
—Noble’s Lives of the English Regicides, 
Sir Philip Warwick’s Memoirs, and from 
some ‘scarce tracts published at the pe- 
riod.”” The plates are copies of “ some 
very rare prints and outlines, which may be 
considered,” says Mr. F., “as enhancing 
Monthly Reyiem of Literature, 
ENov. 
the interest of the account of the ill-fated 
monarch’s trial and execution.” 
The case seems to be, Mr. Fellowes, for 
some reason or other, chose to reprint Nal- 
son’s Trial and Execution of Charles, and 
was then tempted to throw in any odds and 
ends, in any way, near or remote, connected 
with Charles. To listen to his introduction, 
‘something more important was surely to be 
‘looked for, notwithstanding sundry dis- 
‘claimers he makes. “ Many interesting par- 
ticulars,”” says he, “ connected with the ad- 
verse fortunes of Charles, as well as the fate 
of the Regicides, are placed in such a new 
light from the important details which 
the last twenty years have brought into 
existence, that I have thought it necessary 
to add them.’”? However true this may be 
—we have looked in vain for these impor- 
tant details—_Mr. F. must certainly, by 
some oversight, have omitted them. With 
the exception of Mr. Ellis’s letter, in which 
he claims the discovery of Charles’s execu- 
tioner—a letter or two of Charles’s—the 
first from the Hayleian MS., and another 
letter or two of Charles the Second—and 
perhaps one or two other papers—we may 
safely say, the whole is well known to every 
one at all acquainted with the older docu- 
ments of our history. Mr. I’. finally claims 
no kind of merit from the compilation of 
these documents. “I have only,”’ says he, 
“ the desire to present, in one connected 
whole, the various detached memoranda, 
and many curious particulars of this most 
deeply eventful period of our history, which, 
in process of time, might otherwise be for- 
gotten.’’ To even this humble merit, how- 
ever, he has no claim—connewion there is 
absolutely none—and much of it, it was 
mere waste of paper to reprint—Sir Thomas 
Herbert’s stupid dream, for instance. 
Charles the Second’s letters amused us, 
and may the reader, who is little likely to 
trouble himself with referring to the book 
itself : — 
) Woo 
King Chamnles the Second’s Description of his 
Queen, Donna Catherina, Infanta of Portugal, 
* on his wedding day. 21st May, 1662.—Indorsed 
in the hand-writing of Lord Chancellor Claren- 
- don. Inthe British Museum. 
Portsmouth, 21st May, 8 inthe morning. 
T arrived heere yesterday aboute two in the af- 
ternoone and as soone as I had shifted myselfe, I 
went into my wive’s chamber who I found in bed, 
by reason of a little cough and some inclination 
to a feaver which was eaused, as we Phistians 
say, by having certain things stop at sea which 
ought to have carried away those humors; but 
now allis in due course, and I believe she will 
finde herself very well this.morning as soon as 
she wakes ; it was happy for the honour of the 
nation that I was not put to the consummation of 
the marriage last night, for I was so sleepy by 
having slept but two hours in my journy, as I am 
afraid that matters would have gone. very sleepily. 
T can now only give you an account of what I 
have seene a bed, which in shorte is; her face is 
not so exact as te be called a beauty, though her 
, 
