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JAMES PILTON's MANUFACTORY, KING'S ROAD, CHELSEA, MIDDLESEX.

THE INTERIOR OF THE MENAGERIE,

Displaying Ornamental Works for Country Residences, and Specimens of the Invisible Fence.

Mercier and Chervet, printers,

32, Little Bartholomew Close.

whole outline is most miserably bad; it is ill-drawn; it does not resemble the print from which it was taken; and it is not like my father.

How far my threat as to Ignoramus is irrelevant or futile the reader will judge, after the following circumstauces. I knew that the book had been described in a country catalogue as scarce, and an increased price, double the original sum, asked for it; as has also since been the case in a London catalogue. Such circumstances are seldom unknown to booksellers. The unwarrantable indulgence of his curiosity, which he has neither attempted to defend or apologise for, was undoubtedly such as to imply a strong degree of interest; especially when the very title lettered on the back of the book informed him there were corrections in it, and he could not open the book without seeing it was interleaved for the purpose of manuscript insertions, of which there were several.

After Mr. B.'s conduct in the gratification of his curiosity, and after Iraving seen as I had this degrading representation of my father, is it wonderful that I should express myself with warmth and am I not justified in resenting a publication so disgraceful to my father's memory?

To Mr. B.'s assertion that the hand of Walton is correctly copied, and his inference that the engraver is not responsible for the bad drawing of it, I shall only say that, since my last letter, I have had an opportunity of comparing Walton's hand in Mr. B.'s print with the print before Dr. Zouch's 4to edition of Walton's Lives of Dr. Donne, &c. from which it was copied. This I have done very carefully; and I do affirm that Mr.B.'s print is so grossly inaccurate in that part, that every artist who understands the human figure (for some confine themselves wholly to other branches) would immediately on seeing the prints together be of that opinion.

Mr. B. seems to lay much stress on my not objecting, as he says, to his publication, and wants to construe that into acquiescence; but the whole book was, as I then understood, and still understand, already printed off before I knew that any such undertaking was in hand; and therefore it was too late to object.

GENT. MAG. April, 1809.

I see no necessity for noticing any farther any circumstances in his letter; and having, in the opinion of those friends whom I have consulted, fully vindicated myself, which is what I intended, I shall here drop the subject. JOHN SIDNEY HAWKINS.

Mr. URBAN,

Y

April 3. OU are requested to insert the following description of a Fence upon a new principle, with the accompanying Plate, if the subject, on account of its affinity with one branch of mechanics, and its subserviency to ornamental gardening, may be al lowed a place in your interesting Miscellany.

Mr. Repton, in his Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, appears to have regarded the ordinary kind of Fence which he found had been set up, in most situa tions round the house, to keep off stock from the dressed grounds, as a stubborn obstacle to opening an extensive view.

The Invisible Fence, invented by the undersigned, has in numerous instances been consistently employed by that tasteful and scientific designer to rescue a fine prospect, which he found excluded or masqued by pales or railing of the cominon heavy materials and construction. The substitution of the new principle has occurred subsequently to the publication of Mr. Repton's book; or a work which describes not merely every grand object but every minute feature connected with the laying out of grounds, might have honoured it by incidental notice.

The Basis of the Invisible Fence is elastic iron wire, manufactured, prepared, and applied, by a process discovered and matured by the undersigned. Of this infrangible material, which for the main-wires must be drawn out to the thickness of a small reed, continuous strings are inserted horizontally through upright iron stancheons; the intervals between the strings is about nine inches, between the stancheons about seven feet. The horizontal wires in a state of tension are fastened to two main-stancheons at the extremities of the fence, passing at freedom through holes drilled in the intermediate stancheons.

The tension of each horizontal wire is

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JAMES PILTON'S MANUFACTORY,

KING'S ROAD, CHELSEA, MIDDLESEX.

THE INTERIOR OF THE MENAGERIE,

Displaying Ornamental Works for Country Residences, and Specimens of the Invisible Fence.

Mercier and Chervet, printers,

32, Little Bartholomew Close.

whole outline is most miserably bad; it is ill-drawn; it does not resemble the print from which it was taken; and it is not like my father.

How far my threat as to Ignoramus is irrelevant or futile the reader will judge, after the following circumstances. I knew that the book had been described in a country catalogue as scarce, and an increased price, double the original sum, asked for it; as has also since been the case in a London catalogue. Such circumstances are seldom unknown to booksellers. The unwarrantable indulgence of his curiosity, which he has neither attempted to defend or apologise for, was undoubtedly such as to imply a strong degree of interest; especially when the very title lettered on the back of the book informed him there were corrections in it, and he could not open the book without seeing it was interleaved for the purpose of manuscript insertions, of which there were several.

After Mr. B.'s conduct in the gratification of his curiosity, and after Iraving seen as I had this degrading representation of my father, is it wonderful that I should express myself with warmth and am I not justified in resenting a publication so disgraceful to my father's memory?

To Mr. B.'s assertion that the hand of Walton is correctly copied, and his inference that the engraver is not responsible for the bad drawing of it, I shall only say that, since my last letter, I have had an opportunity of comparing Walton's hand in Mr. B.'s print with the print before Dr. Zouch's 4to edition of Walton's Lives of Dr. Donne, &c. from which it was copied. This I have done very carefully; and I do affirm that Mr.B.'s print is so grossly inaccurate in that part, that every artist who understands the human figure (for some confine themselves wholly to other branches) would immediately on seeing the prints toge ther be of that opinion.

Mr. B. seems to lay much stress on my not objecting, as he says, to his publication, and wants to construe that into acquiescence; but the whole book was, as I then understood, and still understand, already printed off before I knew that any such undertaking was in hand; and therefore it was too late to object.

GENT. MAG. April, 1809.`

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following description of a Fence

upon a new principle, with the accompanying Plate, if the subject, on account of its affinity with one branch of mechanics, and its subserviency to ornamental gardening, may be al lowed a place in your interesting Miscellany.

Mr. Repton, in his Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, appears to have regarded the ordinary kind of Fence which he found had been set up, in most situations round the house, to keep off stock from the dressed grounds, as a stubborn obstacle to opening an extensive view.

The Invisible Fence, invented by the undersigned, has in numerous instances been consistently employed by that tasteful and scientific designer to rescue a fine prospect, which he found excluded or masqued by pales or railing of the common heavy materials and construction. The substitution of the new principle has occurred subsequently to the publication of Mr. Repton's book; or a work which describes not merely every grand object but every minute feature connected with the laying out of grounds, might have honoured it by incidental notice.

The Basis of the Invisible Fence is elastic iron wire, manufactured, prepared, and applied, by a process discovered and matured by the undersigned. Of this infrangible material, which for the main-wires must be drawn out to the thickness of a small reed, continuous strings are inserted horizontally through upright iron stancheons; the intervals between the strings is about nine inches, between the stancheons about seven feet. The horizontal wires in a state of tension are fastened to two main-stancheons at the extremities of the fence, passing at freedom through holes drilled in the intermediate stancheons.

The tension of each horizontal wire

is

is preserved by the superior stability of the extreme stancheons, on the construction of which, and the mechanism of the base-work, the whole as a barrier against heavy cattle depends.

When the extent of the Fence is great, the main-stancheons are relieved at expedient distances by other principal stancheons. An improvement in the mode of joining horizontal wires qualifies every part of the length equally to bear the highest degree of tension. The Invisible Fence, in the simple form of the height of three feet and six inches, has in the Royal Pleasure Grounds at Frogmore, and in several parks of the nobility and gentry, been invariably found adequate to exclude the largest and strongest kinds of grazing stock.

Increased in height two feet, the Fence becomes applicable to deer parks. Deer have never been found to injure it, or attempt to leap it, and appear to avoid it as a snare, probably deterred by its transparent appearance. When it is intended to keep lambs out of plantations, perpendi cular wires comparatively small are interwoven upon the lower horizontal wires and to preserve flowers and exotics from hares and rabbits, it is only necessary to narrow the interstices by minute additions to the upright wires. On substances so small, presenting a round surface, neither rain nor snow can lodge: independent of which, by a coating of paint they are preserved from the effects of the weather.

The strength attained by the principles on which the materials are manufactured, and the erection of the Fence is conducted, cannot be justly conceived, but by a person who has witnessed the effect of a considerable force impressed, or weight lodged on a single wire of a Fence erected. The tempered elasticity of the tort-string allows it to bend, and on the removal of the oppressing force the vigorous recoil of the wire vibrating till it reassumes a perfectly strait line, shews that a violent shock cannot warp it. With regard to the effect of these transparent boundaries in opening a view a pleasure-ground intersected or surrounded with them, must be surveyed before an estimate can be

formed of the small distance at which they vanish from the eye and leave the prospect free: this distance may, be stated by experience at seventy yards.

On the utility of this invention to gentlemen engaged in the improvement of grounds, it would be unnecessary to enlarge.

Yours, &c.
Wire Manufactory,
King's-road, Chelsea.

Mr. URBAN,

J. PILTON.

April 10. HAVE lately had occasion to consult the Registers of the Marriages performed in the Fleet. They are contained in above eighty books, and arranged with little regularity; so that almost the whole number must be inspected in order to find out any particular marriage.

They are also private property;" and though they may be in the possession of a very honourable person at the existing moment, yet there is no knowing into what hands they. may fall. What arts might not be practised? What insertions or erasures might not be made, to suit the interests of unprincipled individuals, by fraudulent stratagems or riminal connivance ? How nearly is the ho-' nour of many respectable families concerned in this in portant matter! How many large inheritances are at stake! Government should immediately purchase these records, deposit them in safe custody, have them transcribed, and a regular index made for the whole of them. The difficulty of access, and the heaviness of the fee at present demanded for an inspection and copy of a Register, are considerations, though minor considerations, deserving of some attention.

I should be much obliged to you also, Mr. Urban, if you, or any of your numerous and intelligent correspondents, could acquaint me with the name of a tall black clergyman, who used to solicit the commands of the votaries of Hymen at the door of a public-house known by the sign of the Cock in Fleet-market, previously to the Marriage Act, as the knowledge of this personage's name might very much facilitate an investigation I am now making in a case of some consequence.

Yours, &c.

A. B. Mr.

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