THE MONTHLY REVIEW, For OCTOBER, 1754. ART. XXVI. Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, from the year 1581, till her death. In which the fecret intrigues of her court, and the conduct of her favourite, Robert earl of Effex, both at home and abroad, are particularly illuftrated. From the original papers of Anthony Bacon, efq; and other manufcripts never before published. By Thomas Birch, D.D. rector of the united parishes of St. Margaret Pattens, and St. Gabriel Fenchurch, and fecretary of the royal fociety. 4to. 2 vols. 11. 5s. Millar. D R.Birch's own account of this undertaking is as follows: fpeaking of Camden's valuable annals of this great princefs, written under the patronage of the lord high treafurer Burghley, our author obferves, that copious as the annals of Queen Elizabeth are in the matter, and elaborate in the ftile and compofition; yet the defects of the work are too obvious. For, befides the partiality fcarce avoidable in an 'hiftory written and publifhed fo near the time of which it treats, especially under a king fo jealous and fo much interested in the reputation of a mother as James I. we have frequent occafion to regret the want of the writer's ufual induftry and accuracy in the ufe of the materials within his ⚫ power, and to excufe him for fuch errors and defects as later discoveries would have enabled him to avoid. Of this kind are the original letters and papers of ftate published in the Cabala, the Complete Embajador of Sir Dudley Digges, the Fadera of Mr. Rymer, Mr. Strype's feveral works, Sir Ralph VOL. XI. R • Win Winwood's Memorials, Dr. Forbes's Full View, Dr. Haynes's Our compiler adds, that these various collections, tho' compofed of materials unequal in their importance to history, will, nevertheless, as they relate to the most interesting events, and different periods of this active reign, enable an attentive writer to throw a stronger light on many parts of it; to open exactly the true fprings of its political conduct; and, above all, to illuftrate more particularly the real characters and fentiments of the great perfons who adorned the scene of action at that time. However,' fays he, it is not to be expected that a new general hiftory of Queen Elizabeth fhould foon make its appearance. To relate over again the fame series of tranfactions, diverfified only in the method or ftile, and with the addition of a few particular incidents, would be no very ⚫ agreeable undertaking to the hiftorian, and certainly of little ufe to the reader. And therefore the moft direct and eligible manner of giving the public the full inftruction, which may refult from these authentic memorials, feems to be, to select from them the most important paffages, fuch as relate to • events omitted, or controverted, or falfely or obfcurely de⚫ fcribed, or to characters of the greatest eminence; in short, all fuch facts as, in the ftile of the writers of memoirs, pafs under the name of anecdotes; in which clafs may be ranged many particularities which, tho' too minute for a regular hiftory, are yet more univerfally entertaining, and more defcriptive, both of manners and times, than those of a more public and folemn nature. 6 ་ This,' continues the doctor, I have attempted to do, in a former work, with regard to the laft years of that queen, from the papers of Sir Thomas Edmondes: and the approbation with which the defign has been honoured, by many good judges, encourages me to illuftrate a larger portion of her reign, upon the fame foundation of the original papers of the principal actors in public business at that time. The greatest part of thefe, the ufe of which I owe to the generofity of Thomas lord archbishop of Canterbury, are repofited in his grace's library at Lambeth, for which they were purchafed, at the expence of his predeceffor, Archbishop Tenifon, by Dr. White Kennet, then dean, and afterwards bishop of Peterborough, who has cited fome few of them in his Memorial to protestants on the fifth of November. They confift of fixteen volumes in folio, bound up with *Of which work the reader will find an account in the fecond volume of our Review, p. 179. great great confufion, arifing from the want of a due attention to the difference of old and new ftile, and the double commencement of the year.' Before Dr. Birch enters upon the application of these papers to the hiftory of the time, he premises a fhort view of the state of Europe in general, as well as a more particular one of the court of England, in the year 1581; at which period, as the title-page above intimate, the memoirs he has drawn from them commence: and throughout the whole of this valuable collection, he has fhewn himfelf (as in his former labours of this kind) a judicious, faithful, and accurate compiler. The hiftory of the great, but unhappy, earl of Effex, as comprehended in these memoirs, has afforded us peculiar entertain`ment and fatisfaction. G. ART. XXVII. Philofophical Tranfactions continued from p. 323 232. and concluded. An account of the alterations which the islands of Sylley have undergone, fince the time of the antients, who mention them, as to their number, extent, and pofition. In a letter to the rev. Thomas Birch, D. D. Secr. R. S. by the rev. Mr. William Borlafe*, A. M. F. R. S. ST Trabo and Pliny both affure us, that the Phoenicians difcovered these islands, which were afterwards called by the Greeks Caffiterides, and which Cambden has fufficiently proved to be our Sylley iflands. Strabo tells us, that the Phoenicians first brought tin from the Caffiterides, which they fold to the Greeks, but kept the trade to themselves, and concealed the place from whence they brought it. Pliny fays, that Mediocritus was the first who brought lead from the Caffuerides. Bechart oblerves, that Pliny is mistaken in the name, it not being Mediocritus, but Melichartus, who is the Phoenician Hercules of Sanchoniatho, to whom the Phoenicians afcribed their first western difcoveries. But notwithstanding the care of the Phænicians to conceal these iflands, the Greeks at laft difcovered them, and traded to the fame place; as did alfo afterwards the Romans. As these iflands were fo famous to the antients, it is natural to fuppofe, that the inhabitants fhould entertain a confci ous esteem of their own antiquity, and of their being mentioned in history before the other parts of Britain were at all known. It is alfo reasonable to think, that fome of thefe iflands fhould Author of the Antiquities of Cornwall. See Reviest for June last. R 2 con contain old towns and caftles, and even infcriptions and works of grandeur. But Mr. Borlafe tells us, there is nothing of this kind; that the inhabitants are all new-comers; that there is not an old habitation worth notice; nor the least remains of Phoenician, Grecian, or Roman art, either in town, castle, temple, or fepulchre. All the antiquities here to be feen,' fays this learned writer, are of the rudeft Druid times; and if borrowed in any ⚫ measure from those eastern traders before mentioned (fuperftition being very catching and infectious) were borrowed from their moft antient and fimple rites. We are not to think, however, but that Sylley was really inhabited, and as frequently reforted to, antiently, as the old hiftorians relate. All the islands (feveral of which are now without cattle or inhabitant) by the mains of hedges, walls, foundations of many contiguous houfes, and a great number of fepulchral barrows, fhew, that they have been fully cultivated and inhabited. That they were inhabited by Britons, is paft all doubt, not only from their neighbourhood to England, but from the • Druid monuments; several rude ftone pillars; circles of ftones • erect; kist-vaens without number; rock bafons; tolmêns; all monuments common in Cornwall and Wales, and equal evidences of the antiquity, religion, and original of the old inhabitants. They have alfo British names for their little iflands, tenements, and creeks. How came thefe antient inhabitants then (it may be asked) to vanifh, fo as that the prefent have no pretenfions to any • affinity or connection of any kind with them, either in blood, language, or cuftoms? How came they to disappear, and leave fo few traces of trade, plenty, or arts, and no pofterity, that we can learn, behind them? This is what the curious would be folicitous to know; and two caufes of this fact occurred to me while I was at Sylley, which may perhaps fatiffy their enquiries: the manifeft encroachments of the sea, and as manifeft a fubfidence of fome parts of the land.' With regard to the former, viz. the encroachment of the fea, Mr. Borlafe obferves, that within thefe laft thirty years, it is evident that the fea has made confiderable encroachments on the low lands in that part of the world; whence it is reafonable to conclude, that what we fee happen every day, also happened in former times. That many of thefe iflands, now diftinct from each other, were formerly united, the author thinks is very plain from the flats that ftretch from one island to another. What adds confiderable weight to this conjecture is, that upon the shifting of the fands, walls and ruins are frequently difcovered on thefe flats. Strabo tells us, that the ifles Caffiterides were ten in number, lying close to one another, and all, except one, were inhabited. But fee,' fays Mr. Borlafe, how the fea has multiplied these iflands s; there are now reckoned one hundred and forty: into fo many fragments are they divided, and yet there are but fix inhabited.' The ifle of Sylley, from whence the little clufter of these Cyclades takes its name, is, at prefent, only an high rock, of about a furlong over, whofe cliffs hardly any thing but birds can mount, and whofe barrennefs could never fuffer any thing but fea-birds to inhabit it. This evidently fhews, that great alterations have happened in the number and extent of these iflands; for can it be fuppofed, that all thefe iflands fhould derive their name from such a small and useless spot as this is at prefent? It is therefore reasonable to conclude that this barren cliff was a rocky promontory of the principal ifland of these Cyclades. But this gradual encroachment of the fea, Mr. Borlafe obferves, was not the only misfortune which attended these iflands, nor is it fufficient to account for the ruins, &c. which are now often seen at a great depth under water. From one of the islands the author traced the ruins of stone fences till they were hid in the fand; which fand, at high water, has from ten to twelve feet water on it. Now we cannot fup pofe,' fays he, that the foundation of thefe hedges' (fo they call the ftone fences in Cornwall, which are not built with masonry and cement) was laid as low as high water mark (for who would build fences upon fo dangerous a level?) and if, at a medium, we fuppofe them to have been laid only fix feet above the full tide, I am perfuaded it will not be thought an unreasonable calculation. Here then we have the foundations, which were fix feet above high water mark, C now ten feet under, which together make a difference as to the level of fixteen feet. To account for this, the flow advances and depredations of the fea will by no means fuffice; we muft either allow, that the lands inclosed by these hedges ⚫ have funk fo much lower than they were before; or else we muft allow, that, fince thefe lands were inclofed, the whole ocean has been raifed fixteen feet perpendicular; which laft will appear, I believe, to the judicious, much the harder, and lefs tenable fuppofition of the two.' This fubfidence, the author obferves, muft have been followed by a fudden inundation; and this inundation is likely R 3 not |