TIES, have a Mafter of Arts Degree conferred on them, before they quit EITHER OF THEM. But THIS is an HONORARY degree only; and does not entitle them to a vote in convocation, and, of course, gives them no voice for "members of parliament" for the UNIVERSITY; -the REVERSE of which the annotator feems to have apprehended was the practice.

P. 353." Layer, means the place where he LAID down. When cartie lay down well, &c.] In these two lines there are two mittakes. --Inftead of the place where he laid down"-propriety of language requires either

the place where he LAY down"—or, "the place where he LAID HIMSELF down." - Again-inttead of "when cattle lay down well"-the fame propriety requires that it should be read"when cattle lie down well.".

Though the verb LAY is very commonly used, in London especially, for LIE-as where did you LAY laft night?" inftead of" where did you LIE?"-it is, nevertheless, a great impropriety of speech.-This verb LIE is always used, in the fenfe under conAderation, in our translation of the Bible; the true ftandard of the English language. It makes LIEN in the preter tenfe. Though ye have LIEN among the pots"-is the expreffion made ufe of in one of the Pfalms. The proper præter tenfe of the verb to LIE, is "I LAY:"-" I have LIEN" is the compound præter tenfe, formed by the auxiliary verb HAVE, joined to the participle paffive LIEN; after the model of all modern languages. The verb LAY, not being a verb meuter, but a verb active, cannot, with propriety, be used in the fenfe of LYING DOWN, without affuming a pronoun, in the manner of the reflective verbs of the French.-Thus we find, in the Pfalms "I LAID ME down and flept"-and again, "I will LAY ME down in peace:"-and, in the same Pfalms, xxiii. 2. "He maketh me to LIE DOWN in green pastures;" not to "LAY DOWN."

OXONIENSIS.

mentioned any thing about honorary degrees, and is certain that they were not in his mind at the time of writing. Sir Thomas Higgens, to be fure, was of Oxford; and the corrector feems not to have heard of any other English univerfit,, any more than the keeper of the Bodleian Library in Dr. Middleton's famous ftory; otherwise the term Flow Commoner might have fuggested a fulpicion that the writer might poflibly be a Cambridge man, where there are no fuch things as honorary degrees. His general affertion, indeed, was intended to apply to both Universities, as he thought it fairly might, from what he faw prevail at Cambridge, joined to the defire that now generally obtains of having as many votes for Members of Parlia ment as poffible. Formerly, few gentlemen of fortune, who did not intend to make their fortunes by the learned profeffions, became graduates; and therefore it was almoft idle in their biographers to mention that they did not: of late many fuch have taken the degrees of B. A. and M. A. regularly; and many. who did not chufe to wait feven years for the right of exercifing the power wanted, have ap. plied for and easily obtained from the King Mandamus degrees. If it were worth while to examine the Regitrar's books at Cambridge for the last twenty years, I believe both thefe particulars would be found true; and in the fame view (namely, of getting a vote at Elections) a greater number of Nobiles, Nobilium fili, & tanquam Nobiles, will be found to have taken degrees. Please to fee the account in the public papers of the last Cambridge commencement, when 103 took the degree of M.A. and account for it by what was the cafe, that fix or feven candidates were in the room canvaffing. Here are three defcriptions of perfons, who were all meant by the writer, who never once thought of honorary degrees, because they are nothing to the purpose, and indeed are not at all in ufe at Cambridge: and if the gentleman doth not know that Mandamus degrees confer every right, &c. it is plain he has not heard that Ld. Hardwicke got the High-Stewardship by a fingle vote on the other fide being fet alide, not because it was that of a Mandamus M. A. but because it was given in the wrong house.

I fancy that "Arangely controverted," in p. 315, is falfely printed for frongly.

frongly. I have known those words change place, or ought to do fo, before now.

In anfwer to the query in p. 219, there is no founding board over the pulpit in Great St. Mary's Church, Cambridge. I think I have heard Dr.. Rutherforth fay that he was one of the Syndicate appointed to fuperintend the erecting it. I believe too he thought founding-boards ufelefs; and I never heard a with expreffed there for one.

In country churches the pulpits are often hexagons, and fo fmall, that the fide that opens will hardly admit a moderately fized man, and the founding-beard, being of the fame fize, can never be fuppofed to affift the voice, and only exhibits the appearance of the cover or lid to the pulpit, being raifed up a little for the nonce.- Perhaps the general cuftom might arise from the ancient preachings in the open air in the fhrowds at St. Paul's, London, and at Norwich. As in thefe places, I think, there was a gallery or fcaffolding for the audience to retire to in cafe of bad weather, it was neceffary that the preacher fhould have fome cover. See the curious account in your Magazine, p. 179, of that at St. Paul's; a print of which would be very agreeable: though, if I am not mistaken, I have feen a flight reprefentation of it prefixed to fome fermons delivered there, &c. but cannot recolle& for certain.

At the great church in Newcastle the founding board is a curious reprefentation of its fine Gothic fpire. In Mildenhall, Suffolk, the fame is modern, and of an uncommonly vaft and flat expanfe; and, as no fupport appears, but it feems only to touch a tall flender ftone pillar with a few inches of its circumference, it presents every moment the idea of falling, and extinguishing the preacher effectually. But why lofe time about the outworks? Why not attack the body of the place at once, by questioning the use of pulpits at all? If the reading defk is properly placed as to fitnation and elevation, that all may fee and hear in the compleatest manner, why is not that the proper place to deliver the fermon from! If the more elevated pulpit anfwers thefe ends better, why are not the prayers read from thence? What good account can be given of apra&ice that prevailed in Weltminster-Abbey fome years ago, and perhaps may stil

continue, of the Dean and Prebendaries fitting commodiously in their stalls to hear prayers, and then moving from the western end of the choir to the eaftern, in order to be near enough to hear the fermon? In fome cathedrals, I believe, the custom is ftill more inconvenient, and the whole congregation quit the choir, and retire into the body of the church to hear the preacher. This makes a provifion of moveable deal benches neceffary, which are piled up on one another during the rest of the week. Why fuch practice prevailed before the Reformation, is not difficult to conjecture. In the first place, fermons were rare; fo the inconvenience happened but seldom, and therefore was not minded: in the next place, the choir was often appropriated to the religious to whom the building belonged, who excluded the laity; at least confined them to the outfide, to prevent thofe violent quarrels and affrays that happened at some time or other in most of these places. See Mr. Hutchins's account of feveral collegiate churches in Dorfetshire. But this is no reafon for perpetuating what is found inconvenient. In Flanders are fome exceedingly fine pulpits; the altars too are fplendidly ornamented. This latter, indeed, doth not feem fuited to our belief and worship, at least not in the fame degree; but I fee no reason why the pulpit fhould not be made as handfome as poffible, as it is, or ought to be, the point in which all the eyes of the affembly centre: even where it cannot be made fine, the feats fhould be so contrived, that all perfons, whether fitting, ftanding, or kneeling, fhould be turned towards it; which is not the cafe now, particularly in country churches, in which there are generally feveral large fquare feats, which, if filled, are very inconvenient to kneel down in, neceffarily oblige fome to fet with their backs to the fpeaker, who, when they rise up, prefent a fcene of confufion, as if they were running their heads against one another. The remedy for this is very eafy; it is only, by a partition or two, feparating it into two or three pews, no broader than neceffary.

To return to the "Select Collection." In p. 350, l. 4, r. "imitation of Virgil's "Quos ego," &c.

P. 352. If more rude fpeeches of the polite Mr. Waller are wanted, Mr. Granger will furnifh one, which might efily, and indeed should have been

avoided,

avoided, and hardly pleafed the perfonage who gave occafion to it, but certainly gave no provocation. The remark would never have been made at all, if we had not heard fo much of Mr. Waller's politenefs, whilft only speeches of uncommon severity have been handed down to us.

P. 353. It is poffible that Layer or Lair might have been more learnedly explained, but hardly more clearly, than by faying that it is a word ftill in common use among countrymen for the place where their cattle lie down. CANTABRIGENSIS.

Mr., URBAN, GIVE me leave to add to the very

just character and memoirs of the late Henry Mill, Efq; in your Magazine for Oct. 1779, p. 537, that his great fcientific skill in hydraulics fupplied the town of Northampton with water, for which (I think) he was honoured with the freedom of that corporation; an honour of which he was not ambitious. He had alfo a taste for architecture, and frequently gave his advice on that fubject to his friends. His thoughts were of such a serious and elevated turn, and fo juft were his ideas of the Almighty, and the wonderful works of Creation, &c. that he feemed well qualified for the facred function. He was a good fon and an affectionate brother, as well as a warm friend and a kind mafter. His furviving fifter, Mrs. Hubert (who, though now near ninety years of age, is in full poffeffion of her faculties), has erected a monument to his memory in her parith-church of Breamoore, near Salisbury; a tribute which feveral of Mr. Mill's friends have thought he justly merited from that company to which he had been fo long and fo eminently ferviceable.

In Gent. Mag 1780, p. 270, l. 39, r. (certainly) Lord Orford.'

P. 271. Davenant's cousin Swift might perhaps be Tom Swift, rector of Puttenham, who for fome time, like the jay, plumed himself, we know, in the borrowed feathers of his cousin Jonathan, as author of The Tale of a Tub; and to him this story seems rather more applicable.

P. 279. Zephyrus's chimerical plan of joining Ireland and Scotland by diverting the water from that narrow part of the Irish Channel between Port

Patrick and Donaghadee,' is akin to Mr. Brindley's, who feemed really to think that he could eftablish there a floating bridge or canal, on which the winds and waves fhould have no power. (See his Life in the New Biographia.)

Ibid. Mrs. Grace Tozier for many years kept the affembly-room, commonly called The Chocolate House, at Blackheath, with great reputation, and was much efteemed till the time of her death. She was fo well known by that name, that, although the married a fecond husband, fhe was still called Grace Tozier; and the conftantly wore a hat, which was much noticed, and for which no reafon was ever affigned, though often afked by the gentlemen and ladies of Greenwich and the neighbouring villages, who frequented her affemblies.

The note quoted from Mr. Warton's Life of Sir Thomas Pope, in p. 280, contains alfo a curious circumstance relating to John Philips. It is, that Philips privately dedicated his Splendid Shilling to his friend Mr. Brome, of Ewithington, in Herefordshire; and that Brome fent Philips a pound of tobacco in return. The wits of that age were all fmoakers.

What is faid, p. 280, of John Philips and Smith, was alfo the cafe with Ambrofe Philips and Tickell. Philips was never good company till he was drunk, Tickell never but while he was fober. So I was told by an Irish Bishop who knew them both in Ireland. P. 321. I muft difclaim the mistake relating to Admiral Byron *, properly corrected by "A man must have read but a little of the great deal that was written concerning this voyage who does not know" that Mr. Byron was fhipwrecked in the Wager, and did not go round the world at that time.

P. 311. In the red book Mr. Zoffani is named as one of the Council of the Royal Academy.

P. 314. Query whether Lord Petre's house was deftroyed?

P. 328, col. 2, l. 39, r. preceffion.* 345, twice, for Walfingham' r. Waldegrave.'

Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

CRITO.

able