Mr, URBAN,

*

Nov. 5. AVING called for your Magazine lately at Mrs. Goodwin's coffee-houfe in Oxford, I read with eagerness your friend's (An Architect's) obfervations on Oxford's glorious fiructures! I confefs I did expect from his warm enthufiafm a tribute of praife to our Alma Mater, for having preferved fome relifh for our antient ftyles long after they were abandoned in other places. Specimens of the Tudor mode, not to be defpifed, might have been noticed, as erected long after the Greçian fashions became prevalent, But it appears that the Architect took but a flight view of our glories, and gave himself but little trouble to acquire local information. What fhall we fay of his account of New College? "The first court fhews, by its battlements, the original walls," &c. It is reinarkable, and obvious to the moft, curfory obferver, that the upper walls and battlements of this court are not original, but are to be afcribed to the later tafte of architectural innovation. "The fquarefathioned windows of Henry the Eighth's day are faid to be all befathed in the modern way," &c. What part of New college, Mr. Urban, was erected in Henry the Eighth's day? The doorway under the chapel, as well as thofe to the feveral lodgings, are confidered as

pitiful imitations of our antient architecture." Who could have fuppofed that An Architect" fhould have mistaken the architecture, of the great foundation of New college for that of Henry

1802

the Eighth's day, or for pitiful. imitations of our antient architecture, and at the fame time have allowed the modern encroachments on it, the battlements, &c. in the first court, to be part of its origi-. nal walls? I fay nothing of his hafty and obfcure ichnography of this well-known college, and his total filefice refpecting the greatest innovation here; the fecond court, with Grecian and Gothic mixtures, loads of efentcheons on the architraves of the windows, doorways, &c. &c. as well as the Wyattifed chapel. Having "condefcended to compare this his furvey with thofe walls over which I have not the honour to prefide,” but which I thall always veuerate and admire, I confefs I have not found them (it) either juft or true; nor can I allow that any veil has obfcured the fight of every other perion, faving the zealous Architect in queftion. OXONIENSIS.

P. S. The pofey on the ring, of which you gave an engraving p. 801, having puzzled fome of your readers, I beg leave to explain the words to be " Amer* et tervier," old French for Aimer et fervir, "to love and to ferve ;" an appro priate pofey for that fex whofe matrimonial ambition is, to love, honour, and obey." I forgot to mention, on the fubject of New college, that the elegant cloisters there have been lately cleaned and repaired, not b-autified, altered, or improved in the modern way, under the direction of a gentleman of the Society, in a manner which does no inconfiderable credit to his tafte. a * Tho piibly is what it'ought. to have been; but the engraving correctly agrees with the Rang. EDIT.

Mr.

MI. URBAN, London, Nov. 5.

Mr. URBAN,

Nov. 8.

ftant Reader afks "what methods are taken to clean chimneys in thofe parts of England and in foreign countries, where boys do not climb up to fweep them?" To this question an anfwer will in fome refpects be found in the following extract from "Confiderations on the prefent State of ChimneySweepers, with fome Obfervations," &c. &c. published in 1801, by David Porter."

"The date of chimnies in England I take from the time of Alfred, becaufe brick and fione were but little ufed in building before that period. He built his palaces of ftone or brick, and the nobility by degrees followed his example; from hence I conceive that the ufe of chimies in England became general, as we find them in cathedrals built foon after his reign. Their methods of cleaning them cannot be af certained; they perhaps built them ufficiently fecure to be burnt clean, but it is more probable that they cleaned them with birchen brooms fixed on the ends of poles, or that, where they were too lofty, they cleared them with drawing ftraw or bushes down them.

I am the rather inclined to the latter methods, from my doubts of their building fufficiently fecure to admit the former, and from old chimnics being large enough to be cleaned by thefe methods, which were generally ufed in country towns and villages through the kingdom to the middle of the prefent century; and in Germany and France they now clean their chimnies in the fame manner." (P. 18.)

"In Edinburgh old town, they clean their chimnies by ropes and bushes, drawn down and up them; the men who do this business are fta

tioned at the Town guard to be ready for the publick call."" In Edinburgh new town, where the chimnies are Power and wider, they fweep them as we do." (P. 19.)

Though climbing chimnies may not be an antient difcovery, it is not fo modern that we can trace its original; but from its nature, it was probably the defperate expedient of a criminal, or the laft refource of fome poor negro, to prolong a miferable life." (P. 20.)

Yours, &c. PHILANTHROPUS.

eaft of Ware, the New River flows below the fteep flope or bank of Amwell hill, and forms an ample pool or piece of water; in which there is an iflet, of an elongated form, having the fiream gliding on each fide of it In this retired fituation, fecluded from highways, and the more bufy fcencs of men, fome pains have been taken to reduce this pot into form, with neat and plain fimplicity.

On the finooth and verdant ifle, a large weeping-willow droops its melancholy boughs, in the water, at each end; and a fpiring poplar waves in the middle its lofty head, and quivers in the breeze. the latter, a fombre thicket of everNear greens, cyprefs, cedars, yews, and mournful fhrubs, forms a circle, and covers a fwelling tumulus. On that is placed a monumental pedeftal of folid Portland, to the virtues of a man, on whom too much praife cannot be bettowed. Pictures by Cornelius Janifen, and prints by Vertue, are the only mo numents which the arts have dedicated to fo much ufeful talent.

By the gratitude and good tafte of Robert Mylne, efq the celebrated Architect, a votive urn is erected on the pedeftal; and the following infcriptions are engraved on four fides of it:

the

From the whole of this and the furrounding fylvan .fcene, a mild and pleafing ferenity fteals on the mind, and foothes the fenfes with the effect of univerfal benevolence, caught, as it were, from the genius of the work. The hum of cottagers, of fmall farmers, their children, flocks, and lowing herds, are the only founds which break the filence of the place. Inland commerce from the port of London paffes under the eye to Hertford, through the expanfive meads of the Lea. Emma, a holy and fainted maid, gave name to the limpid fpring, before its waters were, by this work, embraced and joined with thofe of Chadwell. The temple of God, the parith-church, with its ftately Gothic tower, prefides, high and lofty, over all; beflowing (as it were) a blefling on the extenfive purposes for which this noble, unexampled, yet unaffected Aqueduct, was created.

AN OLD

CORRESPONDENT.

Mr. URBAN,

Nov. 9.

HE following piece of pleafantry was addreffed, by the late Mr. Cowper, to the lady at whofe defire he wrote "The Talk." Being prevented from vifiting her by heavy rains and overflowing floods, in order to beguile an hour of leifure, he first wrote, and then with his own hand printed the lines which follow, and added the note at the bottom of the page. The hope of their affording a little amufement to your readers, has induced me to fend them for infertion in your valuable Magazine. K.

Yours, &c.

"To watch the ftorms, and hear the sky Give all our Almanacks the lie; To shake with cold, and fee the plains In Autumn drown'd with Wintry rainse 'Tis thus fpend my moments here, And with myfelf a Dutch Mynheer; I then should have no need of wit, For lumpith Hollander unfit; Nor fhould I then repine at mud, Or meadows delug'd with a flood, But in a bog live well content, And find it just my elements Should be a clod, and not a man, Nor with in vain for filter Anne, With charitable aid to drag My mind out of its proper quag; Should have the genius of a boor, And no ambition to have more."

"My dear Sifter,

"You fee my beginning; I do not know but in time I may proceed to the printing of half-penný ballads. Excufe the coarfeness of my paper; I wafted fo much before I could accomplith any thing legible, that I could not afford finer. I intend to employ an ingenious mechanic of this town to make me a longer cafe, for you may obferve that any lines turn up their tails like Dutch mattiffs, fo difficult do I find it to make the two halves exactly coincide with each other.

We wait with impatience for the departure of this unfeafonable flood. We think of you, and talk of you; but we can do no more till the waters thall fubfide. I do not think our correfpondence thould drop, because we are within a mile of each other; it is but an imagi

nary

nary approximation, the flood having in reality as effectually parted us, as if the British channel rolled between us. Yours, my dear fif'tor, with Mrs. U's best love,

"WM. COWPER.

« Mond. Aug. 13, 1782.”

Mr. URBAN,

Nov. 15.

HE late Dr. Garnett, of Th whom you gave a brief account, p. 690, died in confequence of a fever caught in the gratuitous exercife of his profeflion, and in the prime of life. He has left two infant girls, now entirely erphans; and for their benefit, his lectures on 66 Zoonomia, or the Laws of Animal Life," delivered by him only a fhort period before his death, are now, by his own direction, publifhing by fubfecription. In this point of view, they may be confidered as the latt legaey of a father to his children; the value of which he wished to be eftimated and determined by that publick, in whofe fervice he had devoted himself and his property.

YOU

Nov. 17.

Mr. URBAN, YOU will permit a conftant reader to introduce and recommend an author and work of no common merit, if I can judge ofeither; but that my opinion may ftand or fall upon authorities the moft unequivocal, I fend you a feries of letters, addreffed by the author to one of his patrons and friends; together with his plan or profpectus for the work, and accompanied with a lift of his patrons, amongst whom are the most eminent in Literature (as well as rank) that we of this country can boaft.

Thefe letters have been laid before me, and they have (to a degree almot unexampled, as far as I have difcovered) interefted and gratified all who have read them.

I forward them to you, that your accuracy of judgement, as well as depth of learning, may determine upon the vouchers themfelves.

To me, the writer appears a very fuperior man; whether I contem plate his learning, acutenefs of difcrimination, beauty of ftyle, precision of judgement, liberality of fentiment, or, above all, a mest uncommon fund of good fense, which appears to be diftinguished in his character.

The fubject is curious; and, if you agree with me in a favourable impreflion of his abilities employed upon it, I would with that you would copy the author's plan. My reafon for this addrefs to you, Sir, is, that what the modefty of the author has not suffered him to pub, lith or to circulate, except in a few hands, may at leaft be intimated by you to the publick with its true character; I mean, the fingular me rit of thefe compofitions.

I am told that the Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Mr. George Hardinge, one of the Welth judges and a very good fcholar, have taken up this author with great enthufiafm, and have brought him forward out of obfcurity into public notice. PHILO-CELTICUS.

Fully convinced, by the perufal of the letters to Mr. Hardinge, that Mr,

Davies's work

well deferves the atten

tion of the Antiquary and Philologift, and may affitt the Hiflorian in forming a due cftimate of the learning and arts of our ancestors, and that it is not on literature alone that it founds its claim to notice, but upon the fupport it gives to the authority of Scriptural evidence;" we have no hesitation in fubmitting the following plan of it to the perufal of our readers.

of the Art of Writing into the Weft of Europe, more especially into the Bri

I. An Eflay on the first Introduction

tifh Ilands; of the various Devices employed by the primitive Inhabitants of this Country, for the purpofe of preferving or communicating their Thoughts. II. On the Nature and Origin of the Celtic Dialects: their fundamental Principles developed, and compared with radical Terms of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin Languages.

To this inquiry is prefixed, An latroductory Difcourfe, containing a ge neral View of the State of Knowledge and Opinion, and of the various At

tainments