and therefore unqualified to give evidence concerning the tranfactions of the infernal regions; or elfe, he mutt know that we, who, not from vulgar prejudice," as he pretends, but on the authority of thofe facred writings which Dr. G. has blafphemed, believe the father of lies," cannot but confider fuch déclarations in favour of D G. as diabolical illufions, intended to betray us into a participation of his guilt. hin: to be mons. However, as it is no lefs effential for Chriftians to defire the Doctor's efcape from the dark abode than it is for Satan to be defirous of lodging him there, I will furnish fome hopes in his favour, which probably you may think of more authority than the moft folemn declarations of Satan, confirmed by the collective oaths of all his inferior deI am informed then, that Dr. G. the day before his death, did, in the prefence of an old acquaintance of his a Monf. Martin, formerly a profeller in the Univerfity of Paris, in fome fhape or other, revoke a great part of his ir.cligious tenets. I fear the retractation was not fotficiently ample and explicit to calm the folicitude of his true friends; but it was certainly fufficient to add another infiance to that of Voltaire, and fo many other freethinkers, who, in circumftances of great danger, have proved the infincerity of their oppofition to Revelation. Thus much I can certify from my own certain knowledge, that Dr. G. has, on various occafions, and particularly during his fevere refs fome years ago, completely difavowed and contradicted the theological doctrines which he has maintained in his printed books and pamphlets. 1. M. friends with whom I have communis cated are unable to account for. In the vale, that is upon the low lands, the leaves of the oak and afh were univerfally cut off, and the bloffoms of the apple trees (which were never more abundant) compleatly deftroyed; but on the high grounds thefe mifchiefs were not produced. The fact occurred particularly to my obferva tion during laft week, in the road hetween this place and Biol. For the first twenty miles, which is low and with a very few except ons level, the trees beforementioned were completely deprived of their leafy honours, and the bloffoms gone, but as I began to mount an acclivity of the road which leads to the high grounds above Thornbury, I was firuck with the motley ap pearance of the trees. Among the first, a tuft of green appeared on the top branches, which gradually increased till my arrival at the fummit, when, for a courfe of feven miles, not a leaf ei ther of the oak, afh, or bloffom of the apple, appeared to have been affected by the froft, but all were in full verdure and bloom, as if no unusual oc currences had taken place in the temperature of the feafon. The fame obfervations were made to me by a farmer on the Western fide of Gloucester, where the trees had been affected in the fame partial degree, and, according to the elevation of the fpot, the apple trees have a proportionable fhare of fruit. In one parifh, on the South fide of the city, which happens to be skirted by a very high hill, the farmers of the vale portion will have no ufe at all for their cyder mills in the enfuing autumn, while those who occupy the eminences will experience a greater abundance than in the laft plentiful year. If thofe of your readers, who have attended to natural caufes and effects, will give an Mr. URBAN, Gloucefter, June 1. THE journal weather, with Twhich our Correfpondent has explanation of the above phænomena, obliged the publick, is very curious, pa church at the fame time that Mr. Gray Mr. URBAN, May 10. Practize upon the first, the twentie first, and the fixtie eyght Pfalmes, according to the Rules of the fame Grammar; Sdly, a thort Dictionary, conteining the Hebrue Woords that are found in the Bible, with their proper Significatious. All Englished for the Benefit of those that (being ignorant in the Latin) are defirous to learn the holy Tongue, by John Udall. Imprinted, at Leyden, by Francis Raphelengius, 1593," 12mo. Yours, &c. QUESTOR. Mr. URBAN, May 29. T has been generally imagined that the bones of the animal called the Mammoth were only to be found in the Northern parts of America. Mr. Turner, in a Memoir inferted in the fourth volume of the Tranfactions of the American Philofophical Society, informs us. that a confiderable depofit of them has been lately difcovered in South Carolina. He is of opinion, that the various bones which have been fuppofed to belong to this animal ought to be referred to two diftinct fpecies, one carnivorous, the other herbivorous. The parts which mark the remains of a fecond fpecies are, a grinder exclufively belonging to granivorous and herbivorous animals, and the tufks Mr. T. thinks differently fashioned that both these fpecies of incognita have long fince perifhed. From fome Indian traditions, joined to the uncommon appearances at the Great Bone Lick, he is inclined to believe that the Mammoth united to his uncommon bulk and ftrength the agility of the tiger. In the fame volume of Tranfactions, Thomas Jefferfon, efq. has a paper on the difcovery of certain bones of a quadru ped of the clawed kind at G eenbriar, in the Western parts of Virginia; whence he infers the exiftence of an animal fimilar to the lion, but three times as large, which he denominates Megalonyx, or the Great Claw. Three claws of one foot, whether fore or hinder is MUCH has been faid by Mr Uve- not evident. One of these animals was dale about his improvements in the art of teaching the Hebrew tongue. I profefs to know nothing on the fubJeet but the remarkable coincidence of names within little more than two centuries of each other. ་་ "The Key of the Holy Tongue, wherein is conteineid, firft, the Hebrue Grammar (in a Manner) Woord for Woord out of P. Martinius; 2dly, a fee: 1770 by a hunter on the Kanhawa. The big naked hear is another monftrous animal defcribed in thefe Tranf actions, on the authority of the Indians. Now, as Mr. Turner's defcription of the bones depofited in the Mufeum of the Society, and engraved in this volume of their Tranfactions, prove that the Mammoth. or animal incognitum, muft have been provided with claws, : ties, he fpeat the remainder in adjufting his own concerns, in the intercourse of fociety, or in hofpitality among his friends. His fervices to his parish ended only with his life he continued to catechize his young parishioners every Sunday, and dif. penied his ufual charities with his own hand, till a few days previous to his departure. Thus employed to the fatisfactron of his confcience, he never lost his cheerfulness nor uttered a complaint. The fuccour of that Divine Spirit, for which he prayed without cesfing, fupported him through every trial, and made him triumph over every tempration. So gentle was his difpofition, and fo coricet jus judgment, that he never poke a word which he would have withed to recall; fo engaging were his manners, that he concilated the effeem and friendship even of those whofe age and character were leatt fuitable to his own; fo pore and truly religious was his heart, that he fremed to have fubdued the frailties and coruptions of his nature; fo fervent was his piety, that none who beheld it could remain unmoved; it fprung from a ftedfast farth in Chrift; it thone forth in overfal charity; it terminated in the certain hope of everlasting life. It pleafed God to remove him to that flate, which he had long and eat neftly defired, by a peaceful and happy death; for, after a fhort illuels, he expired with the faine compofure as he would have had himself down to sleep, without a strug. gle or a grown. The situation of this worthy man, in the year 1793, furgetted the following lines, which were then addreffed to him by the writer of the prefent article. "The virtues of a temperate prime Blefs with an age cxempt from scorn or crime; An age that melts with unperceiv'd decay, And glides in modest innocence away; Whose peaceful day Benevolence endears, Whole night congratulating Confcience Cheers; The general favourite as the general friend. Such age there is, and who shall with its end ?" Johnfon's Vanity of Human Wishes. Thou blett old man, whofe temper'd virtues blend, [friend! In one, the Saint, the Father, and the For bleft thou art, tho' Nature's flow decay Hath borne the pleasures of thy youth away. Thy face the marks of past affliction wears, Thy footsteps faulter in the vale of years, Thy vifual orbs in endless darkuess roll, And dull Night wraps thee in her fable støle; Yet, well I know, thy patient foul's poffefs'd Of inward peace, and therefore call thee bleft. On man bereft of his acuteft fenfe Kind Heav'n bestows an ample recompence, The Prophet's fpirit, or the Poet's fire, Infpir'd of old each blind heroic fire'z A like effufion of ethereal flame [name; Ev'n fervent ch vity and focial love; His vaft capacity with antient lore, But gentler ties thy beauteous offspring bind, And crown thy wishes ere they are exprest ; Attract thy liff'ning ear with converse sweet, And guide with cautious care thy wand'ring fret; With ftudious love beguile the lofs of fight, And cheer thy darken'd brow with miles [long of pure delight. Thus art thou bleft, tho' not to thee beThe Minstrel's genius, nor the power of fong; Thy mental eye no fancy'd profpect views, 11. Of a fever, after an illness of feven days, in her 49th year, Mrs. Hawkins Browne, wife of Ifaac Hawkins B. efq. M. P. and daughter of the late Hon. Edw. Hay, governor of Barbados. Advanced in years, Mr. Jofeph Tubney, late an eminent furgeon at Billingborough, co. Lincoln. Returning home on horle back from spending the day with a friend, he was feized with an apoplectic fit, and found dead the next morning in the fields. 12. Suddenly, of the gout in his ftomach, to which he had long been subject, Sir Robert Smith, formerly M. P. for Chichester, and lately a banker at Paris. In London-street, Mrs Eliz. Whitehead. In Devonshire, Mifs Anna Cullen, dau. of the late Dr. Wm. C. phyficiam at Edinb. 13. At Bath, after a thort illness, the Rev. Thomas Barnard, B. D. rector of Steeple Langford, Wilts, and fome time fellow of Corpus Chrifti college, Oxford. At Moira-houfe, the Hon. Ferdinand Forbes, youngest fon of the E. of Granard. 15. Rev. James Goddes, muniter of the Relief congregation at Waterbeck, in the parish of Middlebie, Scotland. 16. At Belfact, in Ireland, the Countefsdowager of Roden. 17. At Dumfries, in Scotland, Simon M'Kenzie, cfq. writer. Found dead in one bed by fome of their neighbours, darts his rays directly in the centre of the wall at the Eaft end, and a brightnets fo conducive to true picturefque beauty beams on the chair of inttalment. While aiming to give this effect on my paper, whether from an overftrain of my eyes, from a tirong contemplation on former events, or whatever caufe it might be, I was at one moment induced to believe I actually faw the whole range of feats filled with fome of the former occupants. Their proceedings were grave and folemn; and I could not perceive any accommodations as though the aflembly were lolling in the luxurious and effeminate bowers of knights or ladies, or the banqueting chambers of over-grown drones and voluptuaries. I may be credited, I had proceeded fo far with my sketch as to take the portraits of fome of the principal of the brotherhood in this my fancy's train; when, dropping my pencil, and being eager in the fearen to recover it, I foon loft this bafelefs fabrick of a vifion;" and all was, as before, an empty face, fave me, the copyift, who then continued on my work in my ufual way. I made, likewife, a view of this room looking towards the grand entrance, where, in the distance as feen through the doorway and fide open windows, the cloifters had their share in giving a pleafing variety to to excellent a picture. View in the Galilee, looking Eaft. At one gaze I took-in the three altars, the five ailes, the doors entering into the cathedral, the windows on the fide, and the openworked timber roofs, of this chapel. This happy union was heightened by that devotionary gleam which ever renders feenes like thefe fo highly tranfporting; it was when the fun had jul funk below the horizon; and day's fading thew leaves in the mind a wide field for ferious meditation. From the South-weft angle of this chapel I made another ketch. At this fpot the whole eene bears on our view in a kind of transformed Pate; the ailes, their columns, and arches, feem to run counter in interfected lines one with another; and the altars appearing here and there, as the intervening forins permit, make every pleafing impreffion that we can be affected with. A rezular confufion (if I may be allowed the metaphor) pervades around; and we (true Antiquaries) are loft in this ar chitectural labyrinth of true feientific perfection. View in the Choir, looking Eaft. What with the fuum of aib that once was here bearing on our fentes from the Durham hiftory, the furrounding works when day's garith eye has given place to a more foleinn gloom to indulge the calm and doubtful brow of hiftoric curiofity, aud the natural holinefs of the fanctuary itfelf, I was awed in an unufual manner as I fet about my fketch for this view. Lifting up my eyes in a centrical direction, the high-altar fcreen was directly before me; on the left were the falls and the fcreen to the North aile; and on the right, the ftalls, Hatfield's monumental throne; and the fereen to the South aile. The whole was farther. made compleat by the afpiring groins recaling from rib to rib, until their arches vanithed into indeterminate diftance. Mufe here, awhile; we can no more recite from this point of obfervation. View in the chapel of the Nine Al-' tars, looking North. As this view conecludes my Durham lift of architectural enumeration, I must mention one concluding hope to my buttle in life's (wift career. I fhould embrace, with the ntmoft fatisfaction, that chance which might enable me to make a finished drawing from this fketch, and, in the manner I fhall here attempt to fet forth; at once to give the architecture of fo admirable a ftructure, and to commemorate one of the nobleft fubjects in our hifiory, by introducing a part of that event therein. Notwithstanding I cannot look forward to this purpose with any degree of confidence, others better qualified, and invited to the trial, may per ect a bufinefs which now hold up for national pride and emulation. In this view then, on the left, is feen the greater part of St. Cuthbert's Feretory; in the centre, the great North window of this chapel ;' on the right, the entire range of the Nine Altars, and above them the feve ral tiers of windows, particularly St. Catharine's window (being the Eat window of the church itself); and the enriched groins over-arching froin columa to column in the moft exuberant fare of that art which has fuch endless charms to ravish and delight! Thus prepared with the arconectus ral part of the picture, we will new fer down down its hiftoric portion. Let us recallto our minds that day when the bane of Durham was fought; when the king of Scots dared its very walls, when Queen Philippa infpired by her prefence Englifhmen to conquer or to die; wheu thofe heroes, the Nevils and the Percys, fhielded her facred perfon; when the great and good Hatfield, bearing in one hand a cross and in the other a aulchion, led on the mighty hotts to at chieve immortal deeds of arms. Then let us remember how they won that baleful conflict, and fee them returning triumphant to the Cathedral, there to offer up their prayers to Him that gave the victory. They enter the nave in pompous proceflion, pafs-along the North aile of the choir, and then enter into this chapel as making the religious circuit of the Church previous to their entering into the choir, to celebrate the fervice upon fo brilliant an occafion. They appear; the advanced body are the holy fraternity themfelves; next follow the relicks of St. Cuthbert, born by Prior Fofler, which had been carried to the field as propitious to England's fafety. The behold the venerable Hatfield, armed now only with the crofs: after him are brought along the trophies of the battle; as the king of Scots banner, the famous Black Rood of Scotland, taken out of Holyrood houfe, to enfure fuccefs in this his invafion; with other banners and arms of the vanquifhed lords and knights. Now look upon the lovely Heroine, the thrice il luftrious Confort to the Third Edward; fee on her golden helm an Angel as her creft, emblematic of her heavenly mind; fee the avenging fword, fatal to facrilegious foes, fee how it darts terror from her fieel-clad arm; her fhining cuirafs dazzles our enraptured fight; fomething more than morial els vates her divine mien; her eyes, her foul, feem all afcending in adoration to the Moft High, for glory and for conqueti gained. Her fupporters are the Archbishop of York and the two Nevills. How endless is the train of warriors! They march on, and are full fucceeded by their equals in patriotic virtue. The captive King next appears, in downcaft guife. He moves heavenly along. Shame and remorte alone cover his difhonoured head; his helmet, fword, and mace, are held reverfed before him, as indelible marks of his compleat overthrow. His remaining warriours drag alike the galling chain, more dreadful to high-born minds when fubdued, than even Death itself. The fcene clofes, and I withdrew me from a fane where I have not been a heedlefs viitor. I have made my purchase, endeavoured by my attempts to flay a raging fire, which, if not quite extinguifhed, is yet got under, under the deliberation of returning veneration for the holy place; and I have received my reward, in the idea that I have done the cause of Antiquity that fervice, which, as a true and profelfed Antiquary, I am bound by Royal Charter moit difinterefedly to perform. It is more than probable, from the late decifion given in the Society of Antiquaries (p. 466), that there will be no augmentation made to their annual fubfeription, &c.; and, from the fentiments delivered by a few on that occafion, inafmuch as our Cathedrals are works of but little intereft, and deferving only of a flight illuftra tion; the laft publication by them of DURHAM Cathedral may prove my laft employ of this nature, although I have by the Council's orders taken the fketches of WELLS and GLOUCESTER Cathedrals, the drawings for the latter being in great forwardnefs. Why a certain part of this Learned Body fhould on every occafion rife to protest their averfion and eumity to fuch publications, and to the ftructures themfelves, many are at a lofs to account for. With me the caufe is very obvious: I fce no myftery. Thefe worthy Members, no doubt, have their reafons for what they fay. Weighty they may be, and not without an end in view. Our Cathedrals, according to the new fyftem, are either to be new decorated, new arranged (not through worldly motives or new principles), or left to their juft deferts, neglect; decay and ruin of courfe fucceeding. The end with fome is then gained; and here ends my Durham tale. J. C. |