we obferved the ruins of a caftle. The afcent from Castleton is exceedingly fteep; a fmall vale appearing beneath, in the center of which fpires Hope fteeple, on the margin of a meandering brook that iffues from the cavern. From a precipice on the right, within a mile of the village of Ashford, we faw Monfall dale, green as an emerald, winding between the mountains, and ferti1:fed by the lively river Wye; on the brink of which flands a picturefque farm-houfe, fhaded by a few trees. Paffed through Bake well, beyond which Haddon-hall, belonging to the Duke of Retland, prefents its venerable front on an caninence in a grove of oaks. Arrived in the dufk of the evening at Matlock-bath. Aug. 17. The scenery of Matlock dale, through which the Derwent thunders in a continual catara&, is inconceivably fublime. Lofty rocks, fringed with foliage of the livelieft verdure, rife perpendicularly on each fide. Vifited Chatfworth, the feat of the Duke of Devonshire, a grand ftone fabric delightfully fituated. The fhrubbery is difpofed with tafte, but the jets-d'eau are extremely puerile. The bleak fummits of the mountains appearing above the woods form an agreeable Contraft. Aug. 18. Through a pleafant country we proceeded to Derby, fituated on the Derwent, in which are a china manufaclure, and a filk mill, erected by Sir Thomas Lombe, who imported the model from Italy. Aug. 19. Rode over to Kedlefton, an ele gant modern ftructure, the feat of the Earl of Scarfdale. The fituation, however, is not fine. MR. URBAN, S. R. Nov. 28, 1780. Propofed immediately paying my refpects, through your means, to the generous Weft Indian in your last Magazine, who fo candidly, fo nobly reprobates the treatment of the poor negroes in our Colonics; and this, after they have been most unjustly made our captives, and even while we think their labonis for us there, in their cruck bondage, to beneficial to the nation. But, as I have been accidentally an unhappy fpectator of these things, my thoughts are too ag tated and diffe to be fent to you at prefent; and I with foine perfon more able ray appear, in your next Collection, to fgeel fome proper means for refraining thele violences as much as poffible hereafter; violences fo very difgraceful to our country, fo unworthy of our boafted conftitution; but, above all, to utterly inconfiftent with our truly Divine Religion, founded on the wide bafis of univerfal Love and Charity. I am, Sir, your moft obedient fervant, PUBLICUS: day; but in the form on the roth of laft F bruary, the fecond collect which begins with O Lord God of our Salvation, &c. was omitted. Dr. Horne, who preached before the Houfe of Commons on that day, has given, in p. 7. of his Sermon, an extract from this prayer, previoully obferving that it was one of the prayers d in Life coupons. It certainly occurs in all the forms for the fats in the wars of 1739-1749, and of 1756753, with an exception to the paffage relating to America. The Doctor alfo remarks, that the idea of the vanity of the wildom and the power of man in all military preparations, without the co-operating aid of God, is delivered in it " with a propriety, dig nity, and pathos, which nothing can ex"cecd, nothing can withfana," and fome think they have difcovered in the Doctor's mode of expreffion a kind of regret at the difcontinuance of this prayer. This omifon is imagined to have been owing to a design in the compiler, of curtailing a fervice, which must be acknowledged to be rather prolix. May not however this end be antwered, and the prayer fill ufed? Whilft two diftinct offices are blended together, as they are in our Liturgy on Sundays and Holidays, the collect for the day must be read twice within a thort pace of time, but in the occafional forms of prayer, this repetition is furely needlets. In the forms of thanksgiving for the victory of Blenheim in 1704, for the Succefs of the allied army in the Netherlands the following year, for the union with Scotland, for the peace of Utrecht, and for the anniverfary, of the king's inauguration, the collects before the Commandments are not the fame with the occafional collects before the Litany; nor are precedents wanting of the like difference in the forms for the faft days during the wars in the reigns of King William and Queen Anne, I trust I fhall not be cenfured as stepping beyond my private line, if I take the liberty of prepofing, that in the form for the enfuing fall, inflead of a repetition of the collcet, dems of the Earth, &c. the prayer commend⚫0 Almighty God, tubo,rukfi oper all the King ed by Dr. Horne be read in the Communion Office, as it manifeftly is well adapted to the humi ating occafion. At the commencement of the prefent troubles did we not often fumptuous epithets uttered? Was it not hear fome very hyperbolical, nay even prewithout referve, and without palliation, declared, that the British parliament was omnipotent, and that the forces fent to reduce the revolted Americans to an unconditional fubmiffion to its laws were invincible? "What God," fays the pious and learned Prefident of Magdalen College," has joined "together, it is the error of the times to pu "afonder; to think only of our fleets and ar "mies, and to forget our faith and practice." W. and D. MR. I Yearly Average of Rain.—Original Letters.-Royal Wills. MR. URBAN, Nov. 13, 1785. N your Magazine for January 1768, you favoured us with a Meteorological AcCount of the Weather, commencing the aft of January 1763, which you have accurately continued ever fince. Will you give me leave to recommend to you the infertion of one article, which would make your Weather Journal complete; the article is this, An Account of the Rain which falls every Month. I think there is fall room enough in the column to admit of it. If you pleafe you may add in fome future Magazine the quantity of rain which has fallen fince Jaauary 1763. inch. 1oooth part. In 1776 there fell 27 : In 1777 In 1778 145 24 : 447 25 : 866 565 xviii wekys, alfo youe haue fourfett your oblygacon made a pone ytt, therfore I woll avyfe youe to make provycyon for itt, and bryng itt to me or fende itt by fome trusty meffynger, or I fhall tempt the law agaynys youe att the next terme, which thall not be for yowre p'fett. Amë. The Answer. Honorable and my most worthy lady aft all humble and due ordre of recommedacous I louly recommend me vnto your ladythype, fhewyng youe reuelacon & knowlege yt I haue fend youe by my faruaunt Joh'n 8 xxtili. in gold, felyd in a bag with my owne fignet, which s'm youre ladthipe fhulde haue had ore nowe yff I myght haue had fo grett leyfer, butt 1 p'y youe to take no dyfplefur. In another caufe her aft' I hope to content your mynd as knowyth J'hu, whoeu' keppe youe. Amen. In 1779 The great advance of the price of bread uft affect many poor families; in your Magazine for January 1780, the peck loaf was 15. 11d., in laft month it was 25 440 fately published Collection of ROYAL I fhould be much obliged to you, if you would infert a table relative to the affize of bread, acquainting us with the price of bread from January 1763, and alío with the particular weight which each loaf fhould weigh after it is baked, as well as before it goes into the oven. AMICUS. ORIGINAL LETTERS from the BRITISH MUSLUM. dutiful Letter from a Son to bis Parents, in Henry the Eightb's Time. From an old MS. R IGHT worshipfull fader and moder in as humble, and louly man' as I can-I reco'med me vnto youe, defyryng to vnderfonde and know off youre p'pyus helth and cōtynual welphar, the wych I pray owr ford Jhus longe to contynue to hys most blcffyd plefaunce and your owne kartys comfurth and confolacone more ou' right inftauntely befechyng and praynge your off yor cotynual bleffyng, which off all treadure vnd' hevyn yr ys to me moft precious &p'fytable, & yif ytt plete youe to here off my perefore att the perfourmyng and makyng of this fymryll byll I was in good helth off my body, lawde be to Almyghty God, and fo my very truft ys that youe be more prayng youe to recomend me vate all my kyasfolke, & to my good frendys, no more to your att this tyme butt the holy Trypyte have you in h's keppynge. ou' A dunning Epile from a Lady to her Debtor, with the latter's defever. In Henry the Eighth's Time. Frem an old MS. TRUSTY ande welbelooyd frend I recō. mend me vnto youe, delyryng to here off youre wellfare more over marvelyng moche that I here no worde nore thydyngs frome youe nore fend me nott my monay accordyng to yow p'nys and day the which yowe poyntyd with me, floritty's pad the space off Mr. URBAN, Dec. 6, 1785. AM not a little pleafed to find in the WILLS," (fee Gent. Magazine for July, p. 333.) fuch a fund of entertainment and inftruction. It may amufe thofe of your readers who are not in the way of meeting with the book itself, to inform them of the variety of its contents. I fhall begin with (what moft materially ftruck me as curious) an exact delineation of Eton and King's .Colleges, at a time when the art of drawing plans was unknown, and the immenfe reve nues left in truft for that purpofe-and thall enumerate particulars without any great atten tion to the order in which they occur; namely,-The amazing riches of Cardinal Beaufort, to be able to lend the King money upon his jewels-his generofity in remitting part of the debt-the manner ia which he acquired his riches, namely, by furviving all his family, of which a minute account is printed.-Oolervations upon the furniture of houtes at that time, particularly what was bequeathed by the Princeffestheir quantity of plate their fondness for beds of ftate the number of their jewels, exclufive of all church plate and ornaments. -The range names of greyhounds and horfes are preferved in fome of the Wills, as well as the accoutrements and habits of the times. -One teftator ordered twenty-five men to be dieffed in white, and as many in blue, at his funeral: And a variety of other dif pofitions will ferve to flew the painions of mankind to have been then, juf what they are now. Their great love for their domeitics and dependents appears throughout, by the legacies they bequeathed for their fu ture maintenance.-The prayers for the foul, being always the firit object of Religion at that time, precede every other confideration. Many modes of domeftic life, and many fingula cultoms in the different period therein comprehended, and which (from their being common at the times in which they were tranfacted) are unnoticed by our old Hiflorians, are amply elucidated. We fee the relict of Edward IV. fo abfolutely diftreffed, that he had not wherewithal to pay her debes; and, having nothing to give to the Queen her daughter, or to any of her children, directs her fmall fluff and goods "to be difpofed of for the contentation of "her debts and the health of her foul, as far as they will extend;" at the fame time ordering, that if any of her relations had an inclination to purchafe, they thould be allowed a preference. Her only perfonal request was, that the might be buried near her husband at Windfor. One material ufe of a careful infpection into the legacies to brothers and to other near relations will be the correcting, or at Icaft the confirming, the pedigrees of our ancient nobility, and may fill up fome blanks left by the great Sir William Dugdale in his Baronage, and will certainly be of great ufe to any future edition of any peerage. Their great concern appears throughout with regard to their heirs at law, to far as relates to the real eftates, which they then made fubject, in many intances, not only to the payment of their debts, but to the corrodies by them bequeathed to old faithful fervants, as well as their own relations.-If any legacies are left to bastards (which was the cafe in fome of them) they appear with a fparing hand; and though they were defirous of providing for them very handfomely in their life-time, there feems throughout a jealoufy of their partaking hereafter of any of the family ho nours, as far as we may judge by thefe Wills. But, as they were always fenfible that their death would be beneficial to the indigent, and fondly prefumed on a too literal conftruction of the apoftolic apophthegm, that" charity covers a multitude of fins," their chief care feems to have been directed by a charitable difpofition to the poor, men, women, and children-and all this, exclufive of the defire they had of a grand thew at their funeral, the intention of which was to unite oftentation with charity, and the relief and cloathing of the indigent, by proriding for thofe through whofe parishes their bodies might be carried for interment. Be-, fides the custom of bequeathing money to the poor, which feems common in most of the wills, the fums diftributed to them at funerals of perf ns of eminence may perhaps be confidered, in a political light, as an eligible mode of providing for the poor in general, and particularly for fuch of their tenants as did not belong to their own de mefnes, which, with the affittance of the religious houfes, feems at that time to have fully anfwered the purpose of the poor's rate of the prefent age. Yours, &c. ETONENSIS. Dec. 9. MR. URBAN, Shall now fulfil my promife of fending you a few particulars of the late Dr JAMES PARSONS. He was a native of Ireland, was educated at Rouen in Normandy; became afterwards a Licentiate of the College of. Phyficians, and Fellow of the Royal and Antiquary Societies; was intimately acquaintcd with Dr. Stukeley, Mr. Folkes, the two Mr. Gales, Mr. Baker, and many other emi nent members of both Societies; was a learn ed, communicative, and agreeable man; a good anatomi, eminent as a man-midwife, remarkably kind in his profeflion to the poor, and in high reputation in many parts of Eu rope. His laft publication was "The Re "mains of Japhet" in 1767, 4to. He wrote many medical and anatomical effays in the Philofophical Tranfactions; and particularly defcribed the rhinoceros, (vol. LVI. art. 6.) on which he was attacked in Gent. Mag. vol. XXXVIII. p. 208. and replied Ib. p. 269. In the Phil. Tranf. No 484. he made fome phyfical obfervations on the cafe of Margaret Cutting, of Wickham Market, Suffolk, who fpoke without a tongue; but this proved a grofs impofture, unworthy the regard of the Doctor or his friend Mr Henry Baker, or Mr. Baker's friend Mr. Benjamin Boddington, that credulous good man, who firil introduced her to notice in N°464 †. Dr. Parfons's Remedy for the Bite of a Mad Dog is in Gent. Mag. 1760, p. 371. He. died at his houfe in Red Lion Square, April 4, 1770, and was buried 17 days after at Hendon. A portrait of him by Mr. Wilfon is now in the British Mufeum; another, left unfinished, is poffeffed by his widow. a. MR. URBAN, Dre. 14. Mr. Rudder, in his "New Hiftory of "Gloucestershire," p. 665, gives the fol lowing account of the growth and fize of a child the fon of Mr. John Collet, a gen tleman farmer of Upper Slaughter in that' County: "He was not eight years old in February 1777, when this account was taken, but measured over the breast fifty-two inches reund, and round the thigh twenty-eight inches. His height I cannot exactly afcertain, but when I faw him it appeared to be about four feet nine or ten inches. He has a jolly manly countenance, and Borid complexion; is healthy, active, fprightly, and fentible, and is much difpleafed with the curiofity of ftrangers coming to fee him." Perhaps fome of your Correfpondents may favour you with a further account of this extraordinary production of Nature. Q "De One of his first publications was, "A History of Hermaphrodites, 1741," 8vo. * fcription of the Bladder, and Animadvertions on Mrs. Stephens's Medicines, 1742," 8vo. +It was rather unlocky that the compiler of Mr. Henry Baker's article in the New Bioraphia Britannica, vol. I. p. 527, fhould introduce this story in a long note, by way of pa gyne on Mr. B. Profe Tranflation of the Second Olympic Ode of Pindar. 567 a PINDAR, OLYMPIC II.. Oye hymns that lead the strains of the harp, what God, what Hero, or what illuf trious Prince, fhall we celebrate?, Pifa is facred to Jove the Olympic games were eftablished by Hercules with the firft fruits of his military fpoils, Next let us celebrate Theron for the victory which he gained in chariot drawn by four horfes: Theron, who is a generous hoft, the fupport of Agrigentum, and the ruler of conquered cities. His ancestors, after having fuffered many miffortunes, obtained a facred habitation upon, the banks of the river: they became the glory, of Sicily, aud were bleffed with the fmiles of Fortune for the reft of their days, which crowned their pative virtues with riches and honour. O Jupiter, fon of Saturn and Rhea, who governed the facred feat of Olympus, the most excellent games of Pifa, and the treams of Alpheus, ard who delighteft in the ftrains of the Mafe; I beseech thee to caft thy propitious eyes over their native land, and preferve it to them and their potterity. Never can Time, the father of all things, annihilate the actions of men when they are once performed; their virtues and their vices, muft exit for ever. "Propitious Fate may cover them in oblivion: the hateful evil dies when it is overcome by the joys of profperity, and the divine will has fent plenty and opulence. My fong makes me recollect the well-throned daughters of Cadmus, who fuffered many misfortunes. The grief is fevere which fucceeds excefs of happiness. Semele with dithevelled hair, having been killed by a thunder-bolt, lives on Olympus; and Pallas, father Jupiter, and the ivy-bearing Bacchus always love her. They fay that Ino has obtained immortality in the fea with the daughters of Nereus. The death of mortals is never fixed, weither shall we end our tranquil day, child of the fun, in unallayed happinefs: for fucceffive tides of happiness and mifery flow upon human life. Thus that fortune which afforded his father (weet happiness and hea ven-defcended wealth, at another time (contrary to his former fate) brought upon him the greatest misfortunes: the unhappy fou met his father Laius and murdered him, verifying the oracle which was formerly delivered at Delphos. Erynnis, looking fternly, deftroyed his warlike race with mutualflaughter: Therfander was left after the death of Polynices; Therfander, who acquired renown in the juvenile contefts and the rage of war, who was the firm bulwark of the family of the Adraftida: wherefore it behoves me to forth 568 Memoirs of Mr. Say; with Remarks on Auditor Benfon. forth a man more benevolent in his heart, MEMOIRS of the Life and Writings of the M R Samuel Say was born in 1675. He was the 2d fon of the Rev. Mr. Giles Say, who had been ejected from the vicarage of St. Michael's in Southampton by the Bartholomew act in 1662, and, after king James the Second's liberty of confcience, was chofen paftor of a diffenting congregation at Gucftwick in Norfolk, where he continued till his death, April 7, 1692. Some years after, his fon (abovementioned) being at Southwark, where he had been at fchool, and converfing with fome of the diffenters of that place, met with a woman of great reputation for piety, who told him with great joy, that a fermon on Pf. cxix. 130. preached by his father thirty years before, was the means of her converfi on *. Being ftrongly inclined to the miniftry, Mr. Say entered as a pupil in the academy of the Rev. Mr. Thomas Rowe at London about 1692, where he had for his fellow-ftudents, Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Ifaac Watts, Mr. John Hughes, and Mr. Jofiah Hort, afterwards archbishop of Tuam. When he had finished his flud es, he became chaplain to Thomas Scott, Efq. of Lyminge in Kent, in whofe family he continued three years. From thence he removed to Andover in Hampshire, then to Yarmouth in Norfolk, and foon after to Lowestoff in Suffolk, where he continued labouring in word and doctrine eighteen years. He was afterwards co-paftor with the Rev. Mr. Samuel Baxter at Ipfwich nine years, and lafly was called, in 1734, to fucceed Dr. Edmund Calamy in Wefinenter, where he died at his houfe in James Street, April12, 1743, of a mortification in his bowels, in the fixty-eighth year of his age. In his funeral fermon, preached by Dr. Obadiah Hughes, and afterwards printed, a due elogium is paid to his minifterial ab litics; and foon after his death a thin quarto volume of his poems, with two effays in profe, "On. the Harmony, Variety, and Poker of Numbers, written at the requeft of Mr. Richardfon the painter, were published for the benefit of his daughter, now married to the Rev. Mr. Toms, of Hadleigh in Suffolk. Thefe effays have been much admired by persons of tafle and judgment. And we are glad to have it in our power to rescue from oblivion the following manufcript remarks, by the fame judicious hand, written in the margin Difcourfe to bis Edition of Johnfox's Pfalms, of a copy of Mr. Auditor Benfon's Prefatory and the Conclufion of that Difcourfe, 1741 tɔ communicated to us by a correfpondent. that Mr. Say "was a tender husband, an inIn the preface to his Works we are told dulgent father, and of a moft benevolent, good, and to diftribute. He was well verfed communicative difpofition, ever ready to do tafte for mufic and poetry, was a good critic, in aftronomy and natural philofophy; had a and a master of the claffics. Yet fo great above two or three fermons, which were in a was his modefty, that he was known only to a few felect friends, and never published modern Latin poets Broukhufius was his favourite; among the English Milton, whofe manner extorted from him." Among the head, etched by Mr. Richardfon, is prefixed to his fecond effay. A letter from Mr. Say the beginning of Paradife Loft, are printed to Mr. Hughes, and two from Mr. Say to Mr. Duncombe, with a Latin tranflation of ceafed, vol. I. and vol. II. of Mrs. Bridget Bendyth, grand-daughter of among the Letters of Eminent Perfons de His character first appeared (without a name) in our vo lume for 1765, p. 357. In the fame voOliver Cromwell, in the appendix to yol. IL lume, p. 423, The Refurrection illufirated by the Changes of the Silk-wwm, is by the fame.. hard. And fome of his poetical pieces are. prayer on public occafions from the time of tween [ ]. berd, I shall not want." Quid fruftra rabidi me patitis cares? &c. Bu chanan. gant paftoral poem with there is just as much paraphrase as is necel- See Dr Calamy's Nonconformis Memorial. "Or two unequal crutches propp'd he came, *Million's on this, on that one Johnfton's rame." Dunciad, IV. 111. Lauder afcribed the ill fuccefs of his edition of Johnfton's Pfalms to this couplet, and from thence originated his cancour again ft Milton. He hould rather have been incenfed against Pope. Yet, "palikely" as it feemed, this event foon happened, 6 |