The circumstance of the Fitzwilliam Museum having become the depository of three autograph letters of Oliver Cromwell, which will be printed for the first time in this Portfolio, has suggested an investigation into the incidents which connected his history with the University and Town of Cambridge.

The letters are preserved in a thin 4to. volume, and are preceded by an account of their discovery and of the manner in which they were placed in the Museum, and are accompanied by several comments. The whole contents of this volume, being in MS., will be transcribed and submitted to the reader, with a few additions to the comments; and the above-mentioned investigation will form a sequel. The reader shall be detained from the perusal of them, only while he is requested to commend and cherish that public spirit or enlarged view of the duties of a member of the Commonwealth, which prompts individuals to deposit articles of national interest in libraries or museums of general resort and reference rather than in private cabinets.

TRES EPISTOLÆ AUTOGRAPHÆ QUEIS ‘TEMPUS EDAX RERUM’ PEPERCIT

Sir,

Having read with interest the article in the Portfolio, on the Old Houses in Cambridge, I have taken the liberty of addressing a few words to you on the subject. We find in many counties a particular species of house predominating, or rather certain modes of building more adopted in that county than in others. In Cambridgeshire we have many of the kinds mentioned in the article alluded to. Some are formed entirely of “clunch” of which there are extensive quarries at Reach or “Roach” near Burwell: others of “gault,” a local term for the blue clay which lies below the gravel of Cambridge and forms the immediate substratum in the low ground about it. This is beaten up with chopped straw, then formed into large blocks of equal size and dried in the sun. Many have a pediment of stone, or clunch, on which a frame work of wood is raised consisting of studs and wall-plates, with strong posts at intervals and some cross pieces as ties. The joists of the upper floor are laid on the wall-plates of the lower and commonly project about a foot or 18 inches over. The smaller timbers have tenons which are fitted into mortices in the larger, and secured by wooden pins. The interstices are filled either with double boarding, double lath and plaster, clunch, or bricks laid level or obliquely.

St. Peter's College, late commonly called Peterhouse, was founded A.D. 1257, by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, styled ‘Mæcenatum signifer,’ who took his name from a village so called in the county, nine miles S. E. of Cambridge. The Royal assent to the plan of founding this, the first College, is among the Records in the Tower:–it is in Latin and may be rendered thus:

SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS HISTORY.

Before the structure of the earth's surface was at all understood, and while even the name of Geology was unknown, attention had been directed to the curious fact, that various objects resembling shells teeth and bones of animals were frequently met with in sea cliffs, and even in excavations made at a considerable elevation above the sea level. These were from time to time collected together and, first in Italy, then in England, Museums were formed of them, and they were arranged according to the fancies of their respective owners or according to the small degree of light which illuminated what might, at that day, be almost termed an occult science.

Among the earlier and perhaps, considering all circumstances, the most creditable and valuable of these collections, was one of English and extraneous fossils formed after great labour and at considerable expence by Dr. John Woodward, a learned Physician, who lived at the beginning of the last century. “And”, says the editor of his catalogue, “he carried on his researches for a course of near forty years, with a passion for the improvement of natural knowledge in general and with a particular view to evince the universality of the Deluge.” Let us give him due credit for the “passion” he certainly displayed for Natural History and excuse, as belonging to the age in which he lived rather than to himself, that love of theorising upon imperfect and inconclusive data which he certainly possessed to a very remarkable degree.

Among the discoveries of modern times there are few that have excited a more lively interest than those of Young and Champollion and their fellow-labourers in Egypt, which are rapidly unfolding the history and mythology of a nation, whose antiquities are valuable, not merely as affording unexpected illustrations of classic literature, but as independent and confirming records, coeval with the Scriptures, and intimately connected with the Jewish history.

The interest excited by the interpretation of the hieroglyphics, has been so great, that there is perhaps not a University, and scarcely a city in Europe, in which are not to be found some of the tablets and inscriptions of Egypt: and we should deem the present work incomplete unless we gave a sketch of the few but most interesting relics which are collected here. To take them in their chronological order, we shall attempt a slight outline of the succession of the Pharaohs, and in passing, touch upon some points of Egyptian history and arts that may throw light upon our studies as a University.

At the conclusion of the paper we have given a plate of the inscriptions; and have annexed to them translations, as complete, we believe, as the progress of interpretation warrants; but we should be sorry to mislead our readers by giving countenance to the pretensions of some of our continental neighbours, who hesitate not to render full and complete translations of every inscription that is found.