all Chronologers; and can be proved from authentic records. (See Larcher's chronology in the 7th volume of his "Histoire d'Herodote." Herod. lib. 1. 16, &c.) This fully shows that Volney is mistaken.

Moreover, Quærens has no authority for writing Kyrus, and Kyaxeres, although I believe they ought to be so pronounced. The Romans, however, always rendered the Greek x by their c; and vice versd; and therefore we are justified in retaining our orthography, though not our pronunciation. The transportation of the names of Astyages and Cyaxeres, as I observed in my first essay, was originally advanced by Sir Isaac Newton, and adopted by ine for reasons there given. Herodotus indeed tells us that Cyrus reigned 29 years, and Justin and Ctesias (ap. Phot.) say 30. But this must be considered as over Persia alone; for otherwise it is inconsistent with the more probable narrative of Xenophon, (Cyrop. lib. 8.) and the sacred book of Daniel, and Ptolemy's Canon: from which authorities (see also Newton's Chron. pp. 40. 307, 331. Prideaux ad Ann. 530. Petau de Doct. Temp. x. 15, and observe Hutchinson's note on Cyrop. VIII. 7. init. compare it with Newton.) I placed the beginning of the reign of Cyrus in Media, B.C. 536: which I considered as a clear "determinate point to set out from." With these remarks I must decline any further controversy on the subject. A.Z.

Mr. URBAN,

THE

Feb. 1827.

HE search for information relative to the connexions of respectable persons, who, as literary characters, or otherwise, have rendered themselves conspicuous, is a source of much amusement. In the "Life of Hayley" the Poet, the autobiographer adopted unusual conciseness, and want of connexive explanation in regard to such matters; and as I am disposed to think that some of your friends, who may have perused the work, will have formed a similar opinion; I therefore hope, that your introduction of the following particulars will not be objected to.

The substance of the few lines which the Poet has been contented to bestow upon his worthy paternal grandfather, and great-uncle, may be comprized in the three following expressions: namely, that he was the grandson of Tho

mas Hayley, Dean of Chichester; that he was named William after his greatuncle; and that it is remarkable that two brothers of the same name should have been both deans of the same Cathedral. I commence my statement, therefore, by observing, that the names of these two Dignitaries of the Church may be added to the list of eminent natives of the county of Salop, which a valuable Correspondent enabled you to present to your readers in the Magazine for 1821.-They were born at Cleobury Mortimer, in the above-mentioned county, and were the sons of William Hayley, a resident at that town; to the poor of which the elder brother, William, left a legacy, in compliment to his birth-place. The younger brother, Dean Thomas Hayley, was also a Prebendary of Winchester, and a contemporary of Dr. Richard Willis, who was Bishop of that See, and a native of the town of Bewdley, which is situate in Worcestershire, but adjoins to the above-mentioned parish of Cleobury, in Salop.

Of these parties the Rev Alexander Hay, after having in his "History of Chichester," particularly noticed several worthy Prelates and Dignitaries of the Cathedral Church in that city, expresses as follows:-"To these may be added with propriety, and could not be omitted but with great impropriety, Doctor William Hayley, and Dr. Thomas Hayley, both Deans of Chichester; the latter the grandfather of the present William Hayley, Esq." (the Poet)" of whom, though I am inhibited, by his strict injunction, from saying any thing, yet surely I may, without offence, repeat the voice of Fame concerning those departed worthies, that they well deserved all the lustre that their descendant can reflect on their memories, how great soever that lustre may be."

From the record which refers to the matriculation of the elder brother, William, at Balliol College, in 1673, when he was fifteen years old, it may be readily supposed that their father's station in life was, at that period, very far from elevated. It may therefore be fairly considered, in justice to the memory of these two worthies, that the patronage which they met with, and their consequent rising in the scale of society, were the result of their own sterling abilities, and meritorious conduct. The marriage of Dean William

Hayley became to him, moreover, an important stepstone towards an opulence which, alas! was dissipated by his heir and others of the Hayleys have also been much indebted to the ladies for acquisition of temporal possessions.-The Poet notices such a beneficial effect as applicable to the first marriage of his father, the only son of Dean Thomas Hayley :-but here also, in the lifetime of the immediate successor, who, like many other votaries of the Muses, was, perhaps, no very good financier, these benefits seem to have gradually, and almost entirely, glided away. And in an article of your Magazine, vol. LXXVIII. part i. 555. expressions of a similar advantageous tendency (and that he was thereby enabled to improve his own rank and fortune very considerably") are reported in reference to a cousin of the foregoing parties, George Hayley, who, in his latter days, became an Alderman of London. In this instance, however, it is satisfactory to find, that the advantages have descended to respectable parties who are likewise noticed in your volumes of more recent date, and whom I shall also further mention in the latter part of this article.

Doctor William Hayley espoused, in 1696, a daughter of Sir Thomas Meres, of Lincoln, &c., a gentleman, not only of old family, and of considerable wealth, but likewise having very extensive interest at Court during the time of King William. The Doctor ("Mr. Dean Haley," as says Mr. Parton, in his entertaining History, he is always called in the parish books; and from other circumstances also, I think it very likely that the family name was so spelled originally) held for many years, besides his Deanery, the valuable Rectory of St. Giles's in the Fields; and to the poor of this parish also, he gave a testamentary memento. He died in 1715, leaving an only son, Thomas (who in Hasted's Kent, is erroneously called George), and a daughter, Ann. Several collateral circumstances, arising from their connexion with the Meres family, occurred, so as to very greatly enrich the former, as his mother's representative. It will be seen, however, from a passage which I shall borrow from the autobiographical production above referred to, that he had not sufficient prudence to apply these benefits to the

promotion of permanent advantage. The only son of the last-mentioned party, was the Rev. John Hayley, of Scotton, in Lincolnshire, who died in 1784, and was, at the time of his decease, the nearest relation the Poet had on his father's side; as, in the lastmentioned Work, he has correctly stated; but he has left his readers to guess both as to the line and degree of the relationship. He has further stated as follows:-"This John Hayley was born to the prospect of an immense fortune; but his father, who had decorated the villa at Erith, on the banks of the Thames, which was afterwards sold to Sir Sampson Gideon, had so perilous a propensity to lavish expense, that his only son inherited little or nothing of his dissipated wealth, but happily proved a worthy man of God, with a cultivated and cheerful spirit, contented with very moderate preferment."

In another place, the Poet, writing to his first wife, shortly after the decease of this gentleman, expresses himself thus:-"I confess to you, that I felt for a moment surprised and mortified, that his affection had not led him to honour my name with some endearing, though trivial bequest: a single book from his library, or the picture of our comely great-uncle."-A bequest to one of his friends consists of an item of curiosity; namely, the buttons which were formerly Lord Strafford's.

Dean Thomas Hayley, the Poet's grandfather, married (as appears by the inscription to his memory in Chichester Cathedral) Sarah, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Harlow, Esq. of Bromley, in the county of Middlesex, and died in 1739.

Whether or not the Hayley family originally settled in this country from Ireland, as Mr. Dallaway (who most likely received his information from the Poet) states, in his excellent "History of Western Sussex," is a subject of investigation which I have not been disposed to dive into; but I find that a grant of arms as follows:-Or, on a cross azure, a cinquefoil, between four mascles of the first. Crest: a crescent Argent, charged with a cross patée Gules: was, in 1701, made to the aforesaid William Hayley, of Cleobury Mortimer and from the record thereof at the Heralds' College, I also find that his father John, and

grandfather William, were respectively inhabitants (and that the latter of them filled the office of Chief Bailiff of the Corporation thereof) of the town of Bridgenorth but this official document does not instruct me as to the name of his wife, or the number of his children. His family, however, was not limited to William and Thomas above-mentioned; for in the Will of Dean William are expressed his sisters, Mary Tedstil (of whom the Rev. Humphry Tedstil, resident in 1747, at Exton, in Hampshire, was a descendant) and Elizabeth Starey: also his brother Samuel. The latter party is likewise named in the Will of Dean Thomas Hayley, who left him a small annuity. He was buried at Cleobury, in 1750; and died, as I have many reasons to suppose, unmarried. If I am correct in this particular, there is not at the present time, any descendant of the name of Hayley from either of the three lines of this branch of the family, which were respectively represented by the two Deans and their aforesaid brother Samuel; inasmuch as the Poet, and his cousin, the above-mentioned Rev. John Hayley, both died without leaving families.

The name, however, is not extinct, as exemplified by several respectable parties resident at or near Bewdley aforesaid; and likewise by the Rev. John Hayley, who is Incumbent and Proprietor of the Rectory of Brightling, a parish in the Eastern part of Sussex, These parties are descended from John Hayley, an inhabitant of Bewdley, who died in 1744, during his office of Bailiff of that town; and was nearly connected, as follows, with the persons who have been referred to in the former parts of this article.

The above-named William Hayley, of Cleobury, had a brother John, resident at the same place; and whose only son, of the same name, had four children; John (who settled at Bewdley as aforesaid), George, Elizabeth, and Catherine. The latter was the second wife of the Rev. William Preston, Vicar of Falmer, near Lewes; also of Heathfield, a parish adjoining to Brightling above-mentioned; and died without family. The Rev. Thomas Wellings, Vicar of Aldingbourn, in the Western part of Sussex, of whose nephew and namesake complimentary mention is made in your Obituary for February 1785, married the other

daughter, Elizabeth; and some portions of their respectable descendants (two of their daughters, Ann and Mary having married and had families) are still resident at Aldingbourn, and one of its hamlets, Norton. Their son Thomas, who died single (and whose surname is expressed correctly in the will of Mr. Thomas Hayley, father of the Poet; but the scribe who prepared for signature that of Dean Thomas Hayley, wrote in error as follows: " My cousin, Mrs. Weiland, widow, her son, the Rev. Mr. Tho mas Welland, &c.) was Rector of an adjoining living, Tangmere; the advowson of which had for many years belonged to the family of his patroness, Mary Dowager Countess of Derby, whose acts of benevolence at Halnaker, and its neighbourhood, are deservedly recorded in your pages, and in some other leading publications.

George Hayley had an only son, who was named after him, and became, as above-mentioned, an Alderman of the city of London. This circumstance took place in 1774; and during the same year he was elected one of its four Representatives in Parliament, a few days after a strong contest among the citizens had placed Mrs. Hayley's brother, the popular and celebrated Wilkes, in the mayoralty. His sole heiress was the late Lady Baker, of whom, as well as of her husband, the late Sir Robert Baker, Bart. and their family, respectful notices have already appeared in your Magazine.

The late Rev. William Hayley, eldest son of the aforesaid Bailiff of Bewdley, held the Rectory of Brightling, but once resided at an adjoining parish, Burwash. He was also Incumbent of Preston, near Brighton. The advowson of Brightling came to him as part of the inheritance of his wife; and dying in 1789, without family, he, by his will (in which, by the by, I do not find mentioned the singular circumstance set forth respecting him, in your Obituary for November in that year; namely, that "he willed eight guineas to eight persons of his own class, to bear him to the grave") gave it to the eldest son (father of the present Incumbent) of his deceased brother, John Hayley, who died in 1779, at about two years before his kinsman, the before-mentioned alder

man.

Mr. Hayley, the Poet, had, on his

mother's side, a first cousin, Captain Godfrey, of Purfleet; and by his will, he nominated this gentleman as his residuary legatee. Some parts of a codicil which the testator added, and which comprises his "picture legacies," are expressed in an inflated tone of sentiment, not very usually found in documents of such a description.

I

Mr. URBAN.

A CONSTANT READER.

March 12.

BEG to acknowledge the notice taken by Y. D. p. 123, of my Letter, p. 11, on the Reconciliation of Chinese and European Dates, which, on reconsideration, I do not agree to correct agreeably to his suggestion; for though I perfectly agree with him, that the sacred Scriptures are our authentic record, and of which, all that I have ever learnt, and all that I have constantly written, afford eminent, and to me satisfactory proofs; yet I can scarcely allow that there was, in my Letter or design, any expression so "unguarded," or which can fairly be deemed "to call in question the Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures;" a subject on which I have ever retain ed a becoming reverence, and which I have defended against those who who suggested the contrary: and in this sentiment I carry my tenacity further, perhaps, than others. If Y. D. will reperuse the sentence to which he refers, it may be that he will find the word "prophetical" used in conjunction with "metaphorical," as relating to our own Scriptures. To the correctness of these epithets in union, there can scacely be an objection, as almost every line of them is clothed in metaphor. My idea is apparent in making a similar application to the sacred Books of the Chinese, that they "may likewise have metaphorical terms;" but here was nothing to ground a charge that they were classed together; had I been considering any part of the Koran, I might have freely ventured to apply the same terms, but not in such a shape as to seem to "class the wisdom, probably the fraud, of man, with the Wisdom of God." Y. D. recommends that they should be designated by a characteristic appellation, or a distinctive epithet; but then he should have furnished one of this kind, and not closed his observa

tion without accurately marking the difference.

2. I certainly did purposely offer a proposition that the Deluge should be the point from which post-deluvians should set out in their calculations of time; and my expression, "if they would be content to remain there, was adopted to shew, that as all nations of whom I had ever read, had, either by terrestrial evidence, or by traditional history, ample grounds for the belief of the certainty of a general Deluge, we should be better enabled to agree in our dates, if the date of this great event could be mutually adjusted. I had no idea that any "censure" was conveyed in this idea, or that the earlier history given by Moses was apparently doubted: If I date the history of my own kingdom from the authorities of English historians, an equal right is scarcely afforded of endeavouring to fix the æra of the Chinese from To-hi after the Deluge; without being chargeable with any censure of the earlier and more sacred history, by Moses, of the whole creation. And besides, as it is well known that the Chinese errors, or traditions of facts and dates, were such as to be hopeless of all reconciliation with European dates, it would have been a waste of time to suggest any epoch earlier than that of the Deluge, because of that fact we are all agreed, and because the sole object of my effort was to fix one date for all nations; assuming, indeed, that our Bible chronology was the best.

4. Again, Y. D. has mistaken my observations relative to the Babel Tower, which he will acknowledge on reperusal of my Letter, and also on referring to the new vol. of A. D. 1820, of L'Art de Vérifier les Dates; by which he will see, that in quoting the tradition of a land-mark, I grounded my remark upon that of the Dominican editors of that celebrated work, which was assuredly a far more innocent motive for the building than what Moses had assigned to it. It was, and is, far from my mind to suggest that Moses was wrong, or to presume that God took unjust vengeance! In using the word "innocent," I meant to convey a kind of smile at those editors conveying such a motive, when we know, from Moses, both the criminality and its consequent vengeance; but I still venture to think, and to hope, that no

stronger.

"Physicians are some of them so pleasing and conformable to the humour of the patient, as they press not the true cure of the disease; and some others are so regular in proceeding according to art, for the disease, as they respect not sufficiently the condition of the patient. Take one of a middle temper; or, if it may not be found in one man, combine two of either sort; and forget not to call as well the best acquainted with your body, as the best reputed of for his faculty."-LORD BACON.

As our bane, and our physic the same earth bestows, [rose, And near to the nettle we find blooms the So, here-when the learn'd of the College you'd try, [you die : As you choose a good Doctor-you live or If you get but a true one, bold, orthodox, [work a cure. pure, Though he work well your pocket, he'll sure Since to save or to slay, all a full licence claim,

Aud for killing or curing the fee is the same, It may not be amiss to depict the learn'd ["utrum horum."

quorum, Then the sick and the ailing-may pick Ev'ry sort they will find, each color, each kind,

As varied in person, as varied in mind-
With their sizes and qualities, thus we'll
begin-
[Doctor Thynne,
Doctor Smart, Doctor Small, Doctor Bigg,
Doctor Long, Doctor Short, and Doctor
Askew,
[Doctor Hue-
Doctor Black, Doctor White, and e'en
Doctor Brown, Doctor Grey, and some who
look blue;

Doctor Yello-ly bright, and light Doctor
Green;
[Mac-Queen.
Doctor Prince, Doctor King, and Doctor

fair,

shake in,

Seek out Doctor Pain, or the learn'd Doctor If your cough look like phthisis, instead of catarrh, [a Farre, And the means of relief's to be sought from Before you set off, to travel and rout it, Just ask Doctors Paris and Holland about it. Perhaps they'll prescribe an emulsion or blister, [Lister; As would Doctors Maton, Macmichael, or Should these not succeed, and their remedies fail, [Hill, and Dale. Then there's Warren and Heath, with Wood, Besides Doctors Frank, Bliss, Bland, Wise, Best, and Hope, [and Pope. With Church and the Parsons, Dean, Bishop, Should the new lights affect you-your mind being gone, [or John? Who so like to restore it as Mark, Luke, Is it bracing you want, for complaints they call nervous? [preserve us) (From which and the plague, kind heaven Are the vapours afflicting your wives or your daughters? [and Waters. Then seek Doctor Steele, Doctors Buxton, Having giv'n a clue to this Medical station, With a list of the learned who physic the nation,

Perhaps, being titled yourself, you require A Doctor with rank above an Esquire: Then seek Halford the Preses, whose classical knowledge [College. Bespeaks him as worthy the chair of the If experience you seek-call sage Gilbert

Blane,

Who you'd take for the father of Hamlet the Dane,