4. And this the Antiquary has been enabled to do by an accurate ftudy of MONUMENTAL Antiquities, the investigation of which contributes fo much to correct the mifreprefentions and fupply the deficiencies of History, as well as to illuftrate the most interesting object in the study of Antiquities, the ftate of ancient MANNERS, of which they preferve fo many ftriking images.

The love and reverence of Antiquity is fo congenial with the natural curiofity of the human mind, that we feldom view but with a kind of pleasing melancholy ANY venerable memorial of former Times. The mind is seized in the contemplation of them with a variety of fenfations, which it finds difficult to discriminate; a mixture of pain and pleafure which it is unable to explain. But when we carry this temper of mind to the examination of the monuments of OUR OWN ancestors, their claim to our veneration becomes more powerful, and their address to our fancy

more

more lively: while the reflections which they fuggeft and the intereft which we involuntarily take in them complete the delightful illufion.

In furveying the proud monuments of feudal fplendour and magnificence exhibited in the remains of ANCIENT CASTLES, the very genius of Chivalry feems to present himfelf amidst the venerable ruins, with a fternefs and majesty of air and feature, which shew what he once has been, and a mixture of disdain for the degenerate posterity that robbed him of his honours. Amid fuch a scene the manly exercifes of knighthood recur to the imagination in their full pomp and folemnity; while every patriot feeling beats at the remembrance of the generous virtues which which were nurfed in those fchools of fortitude, honour, courtefy, and wit, the manfions of our ancient nobility *.

We dwell with a romantic pleasure on thefe veftiges of former Hospitality and mu

* Hurd's Dialogue on the Age of Queen Elizabeth, p.172. note " of Vol. I.

nificence, the pride and ornament of England: That munificence which was open to all, but particularly to the noble and courteous, and to the minstrel, the honoured recorder of their fplendor and festivity: thus exciting the first efforts of wit and fancy, and therefore largely contributing to the introduction of every fpeices of polite learning'.

5. From these awful remains of Faerie magnificence, we pass, with fenfations more fober and temperate, to those religious monuments, which recall to the memory not fo courtly a munificence, but a charity perhaps more extenfive and beneficial: which were also the nurseries of Science; of Science indeed without tafte, as of religion without morality. The Hiftory of MONASTERIES and other religious Houses has afforded employment equal to the ardour of the most induftrious Antiquary. Nor can we fufficiently admire the indefatigable diligence and extenfive learning exerted in collecting the immense treasure of records contained in our

▾ Hurd (ubi fupra,) p. 177, 178.

Monaftic

Monaftic Antiquities. Though the History of these Institutions exhibit too many inftances of licentiousness, indolence, and ignorance; yet we ought with gratitude to remember, that even while the inhabitants of the Cloyster were themselves, for the moft part, loft to all good tafte, they prevented the furrounding barbarism of those dark Ages from entirely extinguishing the light of claffical learning: and that to them was owing the prefervation of the most valuable ancient authors, the various difcoveries of which conftitute fo interefting a part in the history of Learning.

6. No branch however of this Study appears to afford more extenfive field for difquifition than the Hiftory of CHURCHES. Befides the peculiar folemnity which the facredness of place connected with its Antiquity infpires, the inquifitive mind of a liberal spectator will find ample amusement in the reflections suggested by the funereal monuments, and the histories which they de

z See Addifon's Reflections on the tombs of Westminster Abbey, Spectator, Vol. I.

tiquities the memory of many perfons has been revived, who would otherwife have been forgotten: and the amiable virtues of many a private character have obtained that merited applause, which their obscurity of birth or station had denied them.

7. For this purpose public and private repofitories have been examined, and elaborate inquiries been made into ancient records and proofs, that could illuftrate the life of an individual and the genealogy of his family.

Great and important are the advantages which have refulted to general History and Biography from thefe critical examinations of ANCIENT RECORDS. When hiftorical inquiry became thus united with the accurate diligence of Antiquarian research, the Hiftorian was enabled to feparate falfhood from truth and tradition from evidence. Many doubtful points have been illuftrated and

* Archæologia, Vol. I. Introduction. p. XXIII, XXIV. Preface to Lowth's Life of Wykeham, p. 27.

confirmed