completed. Mr. Westmacott was again employed as the sculptor.

Mr. URBAN,

I

Sept. 12.

N justice to a gentleman who fills a very high situation, and whose expressions, in the course of a very important debate, were involuntarily misrepresented by the Reporter, I beg the favour of you to insert the following statement in your long-established and well- conducted Repository. I am Sir, your well-wisher,

PHILOPATRIS VARVICENSIS. In p. 391, of a book lately published by me, I had occasion to introduce a passage, which I had read in the Evening Mail of June 17, 1808, which appeared also in another London Paper, without any material variation; and which, so far as my information extended, had been neither contradicted nor qualified in any of our Newspapers. But, previously to making any remarks upon the contents of the above-mentioned passage, I said, in express terms, that I did not "venture to answer for the accuracy of a newspaper representation;" and of course I was prepared to avail myself of such credible te-timony, as might enable me to correct any mistake coramitted by the Reporter.

Since the publication of my book, I have had the satisfaction to be told by a Member of Parliament, that the two boys, capitally convicted at Chester, did not "suffer judgment, but were transported for life; that this mitigation of their sentence was mentioned in the House of Commons by Mr. Justice Burton, who tried them; and that he meant to apply the words 'production of iniquity, not to the collective provisions of the new Statute, as it passed finally, but to whipping, imprisonment, and transportation for seven years, which, at the discretion of a Judge, are the penalties for Common Larceny; and which, after the mere repeal of so much of the Statute of Elizabeth as takes away the Beneût of Clergy for the offence of privately stealing from the person, would, in future, have been the punishment for that offence.

Knail, was a long, rather lofty room, built with timber, opposite the Church. The house was very indifferent. I have said many a lesson in a small room, into which the Doctor occasionally called some boys, and in which he smoaked many a pipe, the fragrance of which was abundantly retained in the blue cloth hangings with which it was fitted up. On the Anniversary, which was in the summer, the School was strewed with rushes, the Trustees attended, and speeches were made by several of the boys, some in Latin, some in English. When this was pulled down, and a new one built, I was one of the class which said the first lesson in it. The rushes and the speeches were continued. Your Correspondent does not say whether they are so now; nor does he mention the general number of scholars, which, in my time, was, I think, under 70; but which number has since been very greatly increased. I do not recollect any playground belonging to the old School; but there was a piece of ground be yond the church-yard, sometimes used by them. There were several almsmen, who used to attend Prayers in blue gowns.

In my time, at Rugby there was a disorder, which occasionally made its appearance, but was confined to the female sex; and, amongst them, was chiefly found in the lower class. The symptom was, a violent inflammation in the tongue, producing loud, incessant, discordant notes, sometimes causing (involuntary) motions in the hands; the husbands were the persons most exposed to the effects of this distemper, but it often extended to the neighbours. The only remedy ever found, was the application -of cold water, which was used in this manner: a pond was fixed on of a proper depth, in which was placed an upright post, and on the top of that a long pole, turning on a pivot, having at the farther end an elbow-chair; in this chair the patient, or rather the indisposed person, was seated, and secured from falling out by a crossbar, as we have all seen in the case of little children. The Doctor then lifting up the hither ead of the pole, the farther end descended, and the occupier of the chair was suddenly imof a shower-bath (invented, I believe, mersed: the shock was equal to that

since) but more effectually, as it as

suredly

suredly put at least a temporary end to the disorder, and the fit seldom returned under a month, if a radical cure was not produced.

This machine I perfectly well remember in a pond near the ground used as our play-ground. Whether it now remains there, your Correspondent can perhaps inform you. Indeed it is so seldom that one of them is seen in these days, that I am inclined to think the disorder, like the leprosy, is worn out, and is now only known in England by tradition.

I also recollect seeing, in Rugby Church, an application intended as a preventative of a complaint to which young women then used to be subject; this was, a white sheet thrown over a damsel who had been troubled with the falling sickness; and who was placed at the door of the Clergyman's desk, and there received from him a very excellent prescription, how to avoid being seized in the same manner again. As I have not seen the like since, I suppose that this also is a disorder nearly worn out. If, indeed, it appears at all in these days, it seems chiefly to attack married women; but in such cases the gentlemen of Doctors' Commons prescribe.

Excuse my running into idle stories, which have grown out of my original subject; but, as I have told you that I was of the old school, you will guess that I am not very young, and garrulity is, perhaps, excusable in persons of a certain age. Whatever that age may be, I should much like to visit once more a place which 1 shall always speak of with great respect, and which must be seeu with pleasure by A RUGBEIAN.

I

Mr. URBAN,

Sept. 27. BEG the favour of your inserting this letter, for the purpose of calling the attention of those who are chiefly interested in the subject, to the situation of our Army, dwindling away as it now is with disease. It is unnecessary to enter into a chemical explanation of that kind of decomposition of the solids produced by great and excessive fatigue: the generality of your readers would not be enlightened by such a dry detail. A si milar decomposition is produced by the air of such a climate as Walcheren; and in most cases three-fourths of those brave fellows who are at

tacked by disorders occasioned by fatigue, as well as an excessively foggy climate, fall victims to such maladies. I beg, Sir, to propose a simple, but, at the same time (if properly used) effectual preventive, or remedy, and such as will, I hope, be found to answer the purpose; it is merely adding, as part of their diet, a jelly made of starch, seasoned, or not, in any way most convenient. This will brace the solids, and restore the exhausted frame more than any thing, perhaps, in the world; and if used by soldiers on a march, will be found of more service than any quantity of wine, or spirits. Whilst using it they need not complain of wanting butcher's meat, or in some cases bread, and many other things at present considered necessary to an army. It will be found an important addition to the Commissariat, and save the lives of thousands of brave soldiers. The use of it in Spain, Walcheren, East, and particularly West Indies, would be, I trust, a real blessing. Whether Medical nen will take a hint so conveyed, I know not; but some of our Military men ought to have a trial made, and report on the subject in every Newspaper.

I

Yours, &c. PLINY THE MODERN. Mr. URBAN,

Sept. 10. HAVE lately returned from an excursion into Suffolk and the adjacent counties: in my journey I passed over the site of Horse-Heath Hall, the residence of the late Lord Montfort: the Mansion - house has been pulled down and sold piece-meal, by Mr. Bateson, the present owner. Mr. Lysons, in his Magna Britannia, informs us that Johm Bromley, esq.~ the ancestor of Lord Montfort, purchased the house and estate of a Mr. Carew; but he does not give any information as to the ancestor of John Bromley, nor from what branch of the Bromley family he is descended. If any of your Correspondents acquainted with the genealogy of that family would have the goodness to communicate so much of the pedigree of the Bromley family as relates to this John Bromley, the purchaser of Horse-Heath, it would be considered as a sensible obligation conferred upon your constant reader and correspondent,

HERALDUS CANTABRIGIENSIS.

Mr.

Mr. URBAN,

March 3. ECULVER, the Regulbium of

an object of peculiar interest to the lovers of Antiquity. It is situated at the North-Westernmost extremity of the county of Kent, bordering on the West side of the Isle of Thanet. In conjunction with Richborough, it formed the defence of the Rutupian port. The castle, a fort, was a square, containing more than eight acres of land within its walls; the foundations of which, on the East, South, and West sides, are tolerably entire, in many places to the height of 10 feet; those on the North side are entirely washed away by the sea. In Leland's time (who always gave good measure) it was about half a mile from the sea; since when, it has made such rapid approaches, that it now threatens soon not to leave a vestige behind. So numerous have been the descriptions of this famous fort, that it is quite needless to say any thing here of its antient history; but a slight account of its falling grandeur, and a view of its far-famed Church * are forwarded to your timedefying Miscellany, that the memory of its existence may not be obliterated, when the ruthless waves have laid its proud towers prostrate on the pebbly strand.

The Church was situated near the centre of the area formed by the Castle walls; and is supposed to have formed part of the Abbey, which was founded by Egbert in 669; though very many parts of it are certainly of a much later date; if indeed any part of it is as antient as Egbert's days. It consists of a Nave, High Chancel, and North and South Ailes, with two square Towers at the West end, crowned with lofty leaded spires. In the Northernmost Tower is a ring of four bells. The North entrance has a very fair Saxon arch; which evidently was the style of the original building; the Nave and Chancel being partly still in that mode. Length of the Nave 66 feet, width 24 feet. The Nave is separated

are pointed. The pillars are 3 feet 10 inches by 2 feet 9 inches. The Chancel, which is separated from the Nave by one large and two smaller semicircular aches, is 44 feet long by 24 feet wide, and is enlightened by a triplet of lancet windows at the East end, and four single ones on each side; there is an ascent of several steps from the Nave to the Chancel. The Side Ailes are 50 feet 5 inches long, by 3 feet 9 inches wide. The appearance of the whole is venerable and commanding, The West Front is peculiarly striking; the whole width, including the Towers is 65 feet; the square of the Towers is 22 feet, within-side 12 feet. Over the West door is a triforium, but much decayed through time. The ascent to the spires is by 38 stone steps, a ladder of 22 rounds, a second of 16, third of 4, and the fourth of 8, making together a height of 69 feet 10 inches.

The monuments, which are not numerous, are described, and the inscriptions given, in Duncombe's "History of Reculvert" and more fully in "A Tour through the Isle of Thanet, &c.;" therefore need not be repeated here.

If a hope could remain that this sacred edifice would be preserved from the imminent, nay immediate danger of total destruction, many would lament the dilapidated state in which it now appears. The trifling, though the only repairs it has experienced for many years, have been such as have only tended to obliterate its once-harmonizing beauties. The fine and appropriate lancet windows on each side of the Chancel have long since been stopped up with brick-work; apparently with no other intention, than merely to save the expence of glazing! and no light af forded to the most sacred part of the edifice, but by the triplet at the East end. Several of the windows in the Ailes have received the same kind of repair! Many of the bat

GENT. MAG. September, 1809.

tlements