Retrospect of Domestic Literature—Miscellanies. 
the old ones which are extant, being in a 
kneeling posture.* With respect to 
Bishop Wykeham’s robe, Mr. Gough was 
misinformed, when he said thatit is ‘kept 
at New College, and that it is faced with 
silk, and the buttons are rubies.f? The 
only remains of the foander’s dress, pre- 
served at New College, are the orna- 
ments which belonged to his mitre, which 
are of gold with various kinds of precious 
stones, his gloves made of silk with gold 
fringes, and his ring.” 
The West Window of New College 
Chapel. 
« Tt appears by the following extracts 
of two letters from Sir Joshua Reynolds 
to agentleman of New College, thatit was 
originally intended not to place the dif- 
ferent figures which compose this window 
together, but to distribute them among 
the different windows of the chapel. On 
Sir Joshua’s suggestion, however, that 
lan was abandoned, and the stone work 
of the window was altered so as to admit 
one large compartment in the centre. 
Leicester Fields, Dec. 27, 1777. 
‘Tam extremely glad to hear the so- 
631 
Charity, and the four cardinal virtues 
which will make a proper rustic base, or» 
foundation for the support of the Christi- 
an religion: upon the whole, it appears 
to me, that chance has presented to us 
materials so well adapted to our purpose, 
that if we had the whole window of our 
own invention and contrivance, we 
should not probably have succeeded bet- 
ter.’ 
Toward the close, we have the “ Let- 
ters” which passed “ between the Earl 
of Sunderland and Dr. John Fell, bishop 
of Oxford, and dean of Christ-church, 
relating to the expulsion of John Locke.” 
Among the articles in the third volume, 
we find a large collection of letters from 
originals in the Bodleian Library, written 
by Hearne, Brome, B. Willis, Dr. Smith, 
Hilkiah Bedferd, Anthony A Wood, 
Aubrey, Dr. Charlett, Bishop Tanner, 
Sir William Dugdale, Dr. Wailis, Dr. 
Hickes, and others; with some curious 
selections from the Diary of Elias Ash- 
mole. 
The contents of the fourth volume 
have already been sufficiently described. 
ciety have determ‘ned to place all our ,Tle memoranda descriptive of the “ man- 
works together in the west window, to 
make one complete whole, instead of 
being distributed in different parts of the 
chapel. In my conversation with Mr. 
Jervais about it, he thought it might be 
possible to change the stone work of the 
window, soas to make a principal predo- 
munant space in the centre, without which 
it will be difficult to produce a great ef- 
fect. As Mr. Jervais is now at Oxford, 
I need add no more, I have already ex-: 
pressed to him'how much I wished this 
alteration might be practicable,’ 
“ In a subsequent letter, (Jan. 9, 
1778,) he says, ‘ supposing this scheme 
to take place, [ihe alteration above pro- 
posed| my idea is, to paint in the great 
space in the centre, Christ in the man- 
ger, on the principle that Corrcgio has 
done it, in the famous picture called the 
Notte; making all the light proceed from 
Christ. These tricks of art, as they may 
be called, seem to be more properly 
adapted to glass painting than any other 
kind. This middle space will be filled 
with the Virgin, Christ, Joseph, and an- 
gels, the two smaller spaces, on each 
side, I shall fill with the shepherds coming 
to worship; and seven divisions below, 
with the figures of Faith, Hope, and 
* In the lodgings of tne warden of New 
College there is a very old picture of him, in 
which he is represented kneeling. 
+ Introduction, p. cli. 
MonruLty Mac., No. 166, 
ners, and illustrative of the history of 
the university, from the earliest times, 
to the latter end of the seventeenth cen- 
tury” have been selected from the best 
authorities, and are arranged in chrono= 
logical order. 
The extraordinary additions to the fifth 
impression of Mr. D’Isragtr’s “ Curiosi- 
ties of Literature,” intitle it to be consie 
dered almost as a new work, The re- 
marks with which it is illustrated are not 
less numerous than the anecdotes. 
We regret we cannot speak with so 
much pleasure as we could wish of Mr, 
Pyx’s “ Comments on the Commentators on 
Shakespeare.” ‘The short observations on 
the genius and writings of the poet, prefix- 
ed, contain little that is either new, or like- 
ly to be serviceable. One of the principal 
topics is the use of aches as a dissyllabie. Of 
the comments themselves, a very large por- 
tion relate entirely to the errors, the 
oversights and the absurdities, of other 
writers; afew contain Mr. Pye’s original 
remarks; and there are others in which 
the testimonies of former critics are con- 
firmed. As specimens, we shall select - 
the following. 
P. 7.“ Which would be a great im- 
peachment to his age. Impeachment, 
Mr. Mason very justly observes, signifies 
reprouch or wtmputation.”  Sleevens.— 
It is very likely that this common usage 
of the word 1s confirmed by two critics” 
4.0. Reda My 
