Meteorolog. Diary for March 1802, kept at Baldock. Lat. 52°. 2. Long. 5'. W. At 8 A.M. At 2 P. M. 144 147 •45 .9cR 548 49 .8 40 190. B. .98 Do. 33 26.5 L. D... 52 Do. Do .42S METEOROLOGICAL TABLE for April, 18c2. Height of Fahrenheit's Thermometer. W. CARY, Optician, No. 182, near Norfolk-Street, Strand. 56 ,27 fair 57 54 57 67 54 65 55 68 59 42 სა 47 59 45 59 THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, For APRIL, Mr. URBAN, April 14. ****ENSOR has animadverted very auftercly C (Vol. LXXI. p.1181) on the parallel drawn by me (1068) between the Gipfies and the Jews; but, had I communicated the idea that was floating in my mind at the time I was committing that parallel to writing, it is poffible I might have efcaped his cenfure; fecing, that I confider the Gipfies as a people rendered peculiar by divine ordination as well as the Jews. Notwithstanding I mentioned the fuppofition advanced by a German author named Grellman, of the European Gipfies, being defcendants of the Suders of India, I did not declare that I had adopted that opinion; and the truth is, that I am fo far from concurring in it, that I entertain a furmife of mine own, that the Gipfics are defcendants of the Ifhmaelites, and as fuch deftined..by divine profcription, ever to remain a wandering irreciaimable people; but this idea I omitted expreffing, becaufe I would not fet up my own fuppofition against that of a writer who has inveftigated the genealogy of the Gipfies fu clofely as M. Grellman has done; but now that I have difclofed my conjecture, I will confider how far it can be fupported", In the 16th chapter of Genefs we are told, that “ the angel of the Lord faid unto Hagar, behold, thou art with child, and halt bear a fon, and thalt call his name Ith mael; AND HE SHALL BE A WILD MAN; HIS HAND WILL BE AGAINST EVERY MAN, AND EVERY MAN's HAND AGAINST HIM. And Hagar bare Abram a fon and Abram 1802. called his fon's name which Hagar bare Ifhinael." Afterwards we read that Ifhmael was by heavenly mandate expelled from his father's houfe and country, for bad behaviour; but that his mother was confoled for their difgrace by a promife from the Moft High, that the feed of Ifhmael fhould become a numerous people, as well as the feed of Ifaac his half-brother; which promife a fucceffion of ages has seen excmplified. Deftined to roam on wattes, Hagar wandered with her fon into the defert tract lying between the Red-fea and the river Euphrates, where in a certain diftrict near Mount Sinai, called the wilderness of Paran, Ishmael became a roving archer, and there took a wife, who brought him! Kedar and 11 other fons. As he was an Hebrew, this marriage was the bafis of a confanguinity between' the Hebrews and the aboriginal Arabs, and therefore the pofterity' defcended from it became known,' not by the denomination of Ishmaelites alone, but allo by that of Al Arab al moft.reba, o infitious Arabs, a race who increased in population fo redundantly, that the fterile countries of Arabia Defartą and Arabia Petrea could not feed them, infomuch that as their núme bers increafed they were obliged like bees in a hive to fend fucceflive fwarms abroad, to get their living by fome means or other wherever they could find one. Thefe exiles took to wandering into the neigh bouring country of Egypt, with the inhabitants of which they were naturally connected through their Egyptian primogenetrix Hagar the mother of Ifhmael. Thus the Afri can fhore of the Red-fea became over-run by Arabian Nomades as well as the Afiatic; and on 'both coafts coafts we find their defcendants at this day following the predatory lives of the r forefathers under the app lation of Buddoos, and removing their tents from place to place like the former generations of Kedar. People living in this manner are in a conftant ftate of readinefs for taking flight whenever famines urge, or invaders harraf's them; and, the irrefiftable propen fity that, according to the ordination of heaven, they are born with, renders wandering to diftant countries, agreeable to them. In the latter part of the 14th century and in the beginning of the 15th, the two Egypts and Afia Minor were part of the theatre of war during the contest between the tremendous Tamerlane and the Turkish monarch Bajazet the First, which conteft, on the death of the ferocious Bajazet, was fucceeded in the fame region by another between his fons for the fovereignty of Afauc Turkey; and, as if thefe dreadful conflicts on the furface convulfed the earth to its innermoft receifes, thofe parts were at the fame period afflicted with repeated fevere earthquakes, that aggravated the general defolation. Whilft the neighbourhood of the Red-fea was in this deplorable fituation, the Gipfies made their first appearance in Europe, which was in the year 1417, (or a year or two before,) and confidering the then state of Afia Minor, and the two Egypts, I incline my→ felf to fuppofe that the Gipfies were a migration of Arabian Nomades rather than of Suders driven from India by Timur Beg; and this opinion is ftrengthened by confidering how much nearer Arabia and Egypt are to Europe than Hindoltan; and of course how much more readily and privately (fo. the paffage of the migrators fees through the contufion of the times to have fcaped obfervation) a body of people could make their way into Lurope immediately from the ittumus of Suez, or from Afiatic Turkey, than through the king dom of Perfia, and other dominions lying between Hindoftan and Egypt. Another migration of wild human beings from the East into the European quarter of the globe, took place in the beginning of the 16th century, when Egypt was invaded by Solymus the Great; and this hoft being led by a man named Zingancus, their offspring are at this time called Zingances after him, and wander about European Turkey, and the ftates contiguous. Thefe Zingances are in every respect so fimilar to the Gipfies, that not a doubt can exist of their having originated from the fame parts. The unfortunate countries circumjacent to the Red-fea. feem ever doomed to be the scene of ambitious contentions. Soon again will blood moitten their burning fands; and that before the natives have recovered the distress they have lately undergone, from contending Europeans adjourning conflicts to their fhore, that they had no concern in. Perhaps this fucceffion of harrating events may occafion the beginning of this century to be marked like the commencements of two former ones, with an emigration of Gipfies into our part of the world. A SOUTHERN FAUNIST. Vol. LXXI. p. 1069. col. 2. line 11. for Mr. Porton, read Mr. Breton, Mr. URBAN, THE April 9. HE memory of the celebrated Earl of Chefterfield has been fubject to much obloquy, on account of the fuppofed immoral tendency of his Letters to his Son. There are, it must be conteffed, fome paffages in thefe Letters which cannot be well defended; but, viewing the noble writer's private and public character with a candid eye, and making fome allowances for the frailties of humanity, it will,. I imagine, appear that he bad but few equals in the peerage of the laft century. His liberal and enlightened policy when Viceroy of Ireland gained the entire con confidence of that divided people; and in a few years quieted jealoufies and diffractions which had been foftered for ages. As a minifter and as a man, he was never known to falfify his word, or break a promife. To promote men of integrity and worth, he conceived a duty well bentting his high rank. and ftation in life. An obligation from fuch a mind, conferred with promptitude, with delicacy, became doubly valuable, and excited more may be addreffed equally to both. I have from time to time received fo many marks of his kind remembrance, and I know and efteem his merit fo well, that I affure you, it is with great concern, that I am fo infignificantly his, and your moft faithful humble fervant, "CHESTERFIELD." "To John Auguftin levers, efq. Mr. URBAN, than mere gratitude. The kind, A and peculiarly happy manner in which he even refuted those who folicited his favours, never failed to imprefs them with the highest refpect and veneration. Having found the following original letter among the papers of a deceafed friend, it may in fome degree elucidate, his latter point; and I tranfmit it to you, confident that you will, with me, think it worthy a place in a Mifcellany which has ever been facredly devoted to talents and to genius. VERAX. "SIR, Blackheath, Aug. 9, 1756. "I received the favour of yours of the 6th, with one inclofed from my old and worthy friend your father.. Had I the least intereft at Court, efpecially in military matters, upon my word I fhould not exert it fo readily and chearfully in favour of any body as of yourself. But as the next beft thing to ferving you is, not to deceive you, I must tell you with great truth that I could as foon procure you a bifhoprick as a company of foot. It is now nine years fince I left Court with a firm refolution of retirement for the reft of my life; my fubfequent deafness and ill-health turned that choice into neceffity. I have entirely forgot courts, and they have forgot me at leaft as much. They are not apt to lavish away their favours where they expect no return; and from me, I am fure, they can expect none. མ་ "I ftill am, and have been for thefe laft eight months, in fo miferable and declining a state of health, more particularly with giddineffes in my head, that writing is very painful to me; I muft, therefore, beg of you to excufe me to your father for not anfwering his letter feparately, and that this of mine March 30. gain every point of informa S W. B. appears fo anxious to tion refpecting the late Dr. Chel- From the foundation of Bishop Williams at Westminster fchool, on which there are four pupils, he went off to St. John's college, Cambridge, to pursue the benefit thereof; but he did not continue a confiderable time in this fituation, being prefented with a ftudentthip at Chrift Church Oxford, by Dr. Freind, one of the canons, and was admitted to that degree in arts which he had taken at Cambridge. From this period he refided principally at Oxford for many years, and proceeded in his degrees; but I very much doubt his having ever been one of the ufhers at Weftminfter fchool. His mother, with the affiftance of a maiden fifter whofe name was Ward, kept a boarding houfe upon a fmall fcale in North-ftreet, near St. John's church; and I verily believe he made her life as comfortable as it was in his power to do, both before and after her removal into Hampshire, by pecuniary affiftance and perfonal attention. What 294 Dr. Chelfum.-Tapestries of Prince's Chamber, &c.[Apr. his preferments were I knew not, except the rectory of Droxford from Bp. North, to whom he was a chaplain. I loft fight of him for fome years after this, but at no time could his health be faid to be good; and I am a ftranger to the particulars of the latter part of his life. He was generally called a good fcholar, and published feveral fugitive pieces; but even in his early years he did not appear of a pleafant focial difpofition; his manners were stiff and formal, feldom having a fmile on his countenance, and his turn of mind more than ferious and grave, it was very much bordering on the faturnine. On the whole he must be confidered of an inoffenfive character, rather than a man of public utility. Yours, &c. X. *** Dr. Chelfum was the first who publicly noticed Mr. Gibbon's unfairness and infidelity, in a Sermon which he preached before the Univerfity of Oxford, after the first part of the obnoxious hiftory made its appearance. Whether the fermon was printed as it was de ivered from the pulpit, or formed the fubftance of the remarks which the Doctor a thort time after published. on the fubject, is not certain. He was often chearful, but perhaps as often grave and folemn, and said but little. He has often been feen more grave and filent than might be wished, but fhewed none of the Mr. URBAN, April 12. PERMIT me to inform my ftudy of Antiquity though their friends who are zealous in the feffed Antiquaries, and the pubnames are not registered as prolick, that the famous tapestries late in the Prince's and Painted Chambers, Weftminster, about to be published by me, gives the customs and manners of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in every degree of buildings, habits civil and religious; all kinds of armours, offenfive and defenfive weapons, banners, caparifons for horfes, and cannot be enumerated in this adan infinity of other particulars that drefs. For a defcription of these tapestries, by your friend An Architect," I refer them for prefent information to vol. LXX. p. 423And further I have juft received lative to the changes which have fome curious communications retaken place in the above chambers, and fhall introduce them in addition to my already propofed information on that head.. Yours, &c. J. CARTER. J. C. informs his friends, that he, for want of fufficient leifure, is obliged to delay his farther account of DURHAM, CATHEDRAL until the next month. Mr. URBAN, Conduit ft. Hanover-fq. April 26. myself the pleasure of com figns of approaching towards gaiety Imunicating to you the difcovery alluded to by E. D. p. 102, that even a Stoic would condemn. The fault or defect of his writings was faid to be a fiffuefs and want of animation; which the wags compared to a conftitutional infirmity, to which he was fubject. His heir is a firft coufin, a worthy apothecary, retired from bulineis, at Banbury, but fucceeded by his younger fon William His elder fon, John, once curate of Mid dleton Cheney, is red to a living near Winchef now prefer EDIT. of another new planet, by Dr. Olbers, at Bremen, on the 28th of near to the place which the CeMarch laft. It is fituated extremely little configuration of stars printed res is noted to have been in, on the It is invifible to my naked eye, but in your Magazine for that month. evident through a night-glafs; and, with a magnifying power of 100 times, on a good telescope, appears of a fenfible magnitude, but of a lefs bright than the Ceres, although feeble, pale, red light. I think it the laft admits no difc, with any |