Progress of Language, from Improvement to Degeneracy. Specimen of this modern affectation, in order to ridicule it, we could not meet with one that could more effectually anfwer our purpose than your correfpondent O. R's account of his journey into Picardy, vol. LVI. p. 128. That let ter, I dare fay, might have been very entertaining to thole who have been fortunate enough to know the meaning of the French words, fo copiously poured in upon us throughout the whole of the performance-but how much the wifer would they be, who know nothing of that polite language? Our very news-papers are now fo Frenchified, that, befides the commonplace fashionable words with which almut every paragraph is crammed, ubole feniences are given in French, which the mere English reader must remain totally ignorant of, as we are feldom favoured with a tranflation. Is not this abfolutely a fraud, Mr. Urban? When an Englishman pays his three peace for information or amufement, he has a right to expect that information, and that amusement, which he pays for; but, when it is delivered in an unknown language, it might as well not have been delivered at all; and of course John Bull thinks himself (and very jufly too) cheated of part of his money. The advocates for this affected mode will fay, that "French is now become fo generally a part of polite education, that almost every one is acquainted with it." I beg pardon of these very polite gentry, and would ask them, is it only for the polite part of the nation that news-papers are printed? There are numbers of very well-educated people who know not a word of French, and, among the middling and lower clafs, very few who do understand it. Another plea is, that there are many fingle words in French which cannot be to well rendered into English without lofing their force-or, whofe meaning cannot be fo well explained by any English word. Did thofe English writers, whole works are reckoned among the best ftandards of the English language, feel the want of thefe French phrafes or are their works the lefs eteemed by the best judges because they have none of them? On the contrary, had the writings of Addifon, Steele, Swift, Johnfon, and many others, been difgraced and deformed by the interlarding of hauteur, debut, navvète, entrée, outré, amateur, monchalance, abord, &c. &c. &c. they 573 never would have rifen to that rank of eftimation which they now fo defervedly hold. I would ask thefe mighty sticklers for French phrafes, whether the French ever imitate our example? No; their tafte is not yet fo depraved as that they fhould think there can be much beauty in fo heterogeneous a jumble of different languages. How would a French letter look interlarded with English words? If we Englishmen imitate our Gallic neighbours in their fooleries and their vices; and if prefently we muft needs imitate them too in their FORM OF GOVERNMENT; in the name of common fenfe let us alfo imitate them in thofe things wherein they fhew themfelves worthy of imitation, and enter tain a juft refpect for the dignity of our own mother-tongue. This fpecies of foppery, in adulterating our own language with French words, which first arofe from the vanity of thofe who were defirous of letting the world know that they had travelled, was much ufed by Smollett: his travels abound with many inftances: of it. Sterne, in his "Sentimental Journey", has but too much of it: but it was Lord Chesterfield who eftablished the currency of this adulterated coin amongst the fashionable world, and thofe who pride themfeives in aping whatever is fashionable. The inhabitants of Curraçoa, one of the Dutch Weft-India iflands on the coaft of Caraccas, speak a jargon, which is by them called popplementa, or populamenta. It is a mixture of Dutch, French, Italian, English, Indian, and a great deal of Spanish. If the fashionable folks of Old England perfift in the corruption of their mother-tongue, as they have done for a few years back, we thall foon, Mr. Urban, have a populamenta of our own; and our converfation, in 50 years hence, or perhaps in a much thorter space of time, will become a jargon, wherein French and Italian will overwhelm the genuine English. A PLAIN ENGLISHMAN. A fight Sketch of English Vineyards. ancient Banding in this country, but were at length probably neglected, from the cheapnefs with which wing was imported before the fame was burthened with high duties. Stow, I think, mentions a vineyard in Eaft Smithfield, held by the Conftable of the INEYARDS, it is certain, were Tower 574 A flight Sketch of English Vineyards. Tower of London until the second year of King Stephen; it was most likely fituated on the South or South-eastern declivity, floping to the Thames. In the records of Ely Houfe in Holborn, mention is, I believe, made of a vineyard formerly belonging to the Bishop, and which was planted on the Southeaft afpect defcending to the bourn or brook, which now runs under the Fleetmarket into the Thames. Rayleigh in Effex, we are told, belonged at the Conqueft to Suens, who had fix meafures of vineyard there, which produced in a good season twenty modios of wine (v. Jekyll's Hiftory of Effex). There was likewife, as I have fomewhere read, fome centuries past, a vineyard at Crowland Abbey in Lincolnshire; and another, more recent,' at Camberwell in Surry, which to this day retains its name, though the vines have long fince been extirpated. There were for merly, it is natural to believe, many more vineyards in this kingdom, but their local fituation is now loft, for want of being recorded; and, by degrees, those that were particularized were reduced to two, the one at Darking in Surrey, the other near Bath; and those two, in the year 1720, were perhaps the only remaining ones of the old planting, and which turned to little account, either from cultivating a fort of grape unfuitable to the climate, or for want of skill in the management. About this period a gentleman named Warner, obferving the Munier, or Burgundy grape, ripen early, conceived an idea it might do in a vineyard, and accordingly procured fome cuttings, which he planted as standards in his very extraordinary garden, near East-lane, Rotherhithe; though the foil was wholly unfavourable, yer, by proper care and cultivation, his vineyard in a few years produced fruit fufficiently matured to make a reafonably good wine; and, in confequence, he increafed his plantation fo amply, that, in a few years more, his vintage was fo abundant as to yield him an annual produce of above 100 gallons of wine. For further obfervations on Mr. Warner's vineyard, vide Bradley's "Treatife on Hufhandry and Gardening," for the month of July, 1721, and for those of Auguft and September, 1724. From Mr. Warner's cuttings, moft of the English vineyards have been fince fupplied, in particular, the late Mr. King's, at Brompton in Middlefex; Sir John Eyles's, at Giddy-hall in Effex; and at Wanftead (Earl Tylney's) in the fame county; but by far the most flourishing vineyard at prefent exifting in this country is at Pains-hill, near Cobham in Surrey, formerly the feat of Charles Hamilton, efq. who planted the fame, and which, in favourable feafons, under the direction of experi enced vignerons, has yielded a juice, which, I had almost faid, would not have been difgraced by a compariton with even the best produce of thofe celebrated diftricts of Burgundy and Champaigne. C. P.S. In my too trivial remarks on the Yew-tree, honoured with infertion in January Mag. and in which I meant to confider it as a native tree to CreatBritain and Ireland, I omitted to mention, that, to the best of my remembrance, I had alfo feen it growing on the precipitous rocks that border the Eaftern fide of the courte of the Wye, between Tintern Abbey and Chepstow, in Monmouthshire; and likewife on the Weftern or Fell fide of WinanderMere in Weftmorland. If these two inftances now adduced fhould turn out to be facts, of which I have not the fhadow of a doubt, perhaps your highJy-valuable correfpondent T. H. W. will allow they carry fome degree of weight with them, to prove the Yew. tree indigenous to this kingdom. In all events, I fhall certainly pay great deference to his opinion on the fubject. The Yew-tree is, I believe, natural to Corfica; but I doubt whether it is fo to France, Switzerland, Savoy, or Italy, at leaft the writer never noticed it in either; whereas the buxus, the boxtree, is to be met with in each, and remarkably fo in fome parts of the Lyonois and Dauphiny, in France; alfo, near Mont Melian in Savoy; and abundantly fo on the Northern banks of the Lake of Geneva, a few miles from that city, where it flourishes fo close to the lake fide, that the stems of fome of the trees are even washed by its waters. That the Yew-tree may nevertheless be feen in Italy is certain; but, it is there preferved as an exotic in pots on ba, luftrades, and in the parterres of fome of the principal gardens; and, in par ticular, may be teen in those belonging to a celebrated villa on the Northern fide of the canal of the Brenta, a few miles below Padua, in the way to Venice, where, fcorching under the too powerful influence of an Italian fun, it exhibits Further Particulars of the University of Louvain. exhibits its diminutive pyramidical form, ftunted and yellow, and fhorn down to the humble dimenfions of a modern-fized English fugar-loaf. C. Mr. URBAN, June 7. LEASE to correct the following my fhort account of the univerfity of Col. 1. 1. 25, for 200 students r. 2000. 1431 Great College. 1483 St. Ives. 483 Coll. Sancti Donati. 1490 Standonck. 499 Hanterlé. 1509 Coll. Atrebatense. Arras College. 1512 Coll Adriani Papæ. 1360 Little College. 575 Without the laft alteration, there will appear a falfe chronology, the univerfity being founded 44 years after the rebellion of the weavers. As fome of your readers may be furprized at the number of the colleges, I herewith fend you a lift of their names, with the the respective foundations, ac cording to priority, as given me by one of the profeffors of Patrimonium, a very fenfible man, whofe politeness and information were highly pleafing: 1571 Præmonstratenses. 1605 Leige Seminary. The above are all matriculars, excent the two laft, having the fame privileges and immunities which are anBezed to the univerfity. The greater part of thefe colleges confifts of irregular, though modern buildings, of mean architecture, and by no means comparable to the venerable dignity of thofe in our two univerfities of Oxford and Cambridge. A few there are indeed worthy of notice, amongst which we may rank the four Pædagogia; thefe are very fpacious, inelegant, yet well contrived to lodge a great number of ftudents. The palm for philofophy is annually delivered to fome one member, felected from either of thefe four houfes, who is adjudged the most deferving, and he is called the primus. This pre-eminence is not only honourable, but, at the fame time, rewarded by many privileges. After being publy declared primus before the body academic, he is conducted to the place of his nativity with great pomp and ceremony by the principals and other profeffors of the univerfity, efcorted by all bis fellow-ftudents, who join in the cavalcade. If the place of his birth be fome obfcure village, the fhow is not fo brilliant. When any capital town caims him as a citizen, the eclat is more graad. I was once prefent at this kind of academic oration; it was at Bruxelles; the Duke of Lorraine,Governor-general, fint is coach of ftate to take in the claffick young hero, having likewife ordered other carriages for the ufe of his parents and fame near relations. Thus he made his public entry, accom panied by a party of the huffar-guards; the ftreet in which his father lived having been previously decorated wich flags, tapestry, green boughs, and other embellishments, amongst which I obferved feveral fcrolls of ornamented paper, containing Latin. French, and Flemith chronograms, all in compliment to the primus and his family, fome of them not ill adapted, according to my remembrance. Others bore allufion to the father's trade, which was in the humble ftation of a petty grocer. The paternal houfe feemed to be diftinguished, by a profufion of devices, above the reft, the decorations reaching even up to the gable point. Here the magiftrates, in their formalities, prefented the wine of honour; and the laurelled academist received from their hands a handfome piece of plate, infcribed to his praife upon the occafion. This concluded the main ceremony; the fef tivity of the neighbours continued, however, until after midnight. This exhibition, I am not ashamed to own, gave me a degree of inward pleasure. It was a scene of general joy, wherein I took part, and, although an idle ob ferver, an alien, I could not help applauding this public tribute to rifing talents and prefent merit; but, molt of all, 1 576 Collegiate Church of Louvain.-Defence of Dr. Priestley. all, I fecretly fhared in the heart-felt fatisfaction which appeared vifibly impreffed on the countenances of both the aged parents, towards whom the whole glory of the day feemed to revert. A by ftander, an arch wag, hinted to me, "that it was a very extraordinary fight indeed, few of the inhabitants of great cities arriving at this honour; the laurel-crown was more generally carried by the fons of husbandmen or villagers, whofe future dependance refting on the fuccefs of their ftudies, moft commonly furpaffed the indolent citizens. Our nobility (added he) ftudy pleasure and diffipation more than the fciences, and our bons bourgeois as foolishly imitate them." I told him, I hoped his cenfure was too fevere, and, if true, it must be local, as in fome nations the contrary exifted. There is yet ftanding at Louvain part of the old drapers-hall, now converted into four public schools, where lectures in divinity, philofophy, law, and phyfick, are given, and the public acts are made. Adjoining to the fchools is the university library, which all together compofe a large pile of building. Over the door of the chief entrance I read thefe words, Sapientia edificavit fibi domum. The principal church is collegiate, dedicated to St. Peter, which had formerly three very large towers with elevated fpires, one confiderably higher than the two collaterals; there were blown down in the year recorded by this chronogram, Mula CaDVnt. A perfpective view of it is still preferved, which I have feen, and it conveyed to me a faint idea of Lichfield cathedral. From the name of this church the burghers have acquired the nick-name of Petermen, whofe ancestors having clothed the back by a noble woollen manufacture, the modern Petermen now compofe an ignoble mixture for the belly, called, after them, Peterman beer, a fort of whitith muddy ale, which they, notwithftanding, fend in large quantities to all parts of the country, as well as to Holland, by the canals. Some of the brew. ers have gained confiderable fortunes (as I was told) by this trade. Yours, &c. OBSERVATOR. your laft Supplement. You should have heard from me before, had I not been prevented by fome reafons not neceffary to be mentioned. I have no occafion to say much: but, I truft, what I have to offer will be fufficient. My charge against J. E. confifts of two parts: grofs misrepresentation of Dr. Priestley's meaning, and unfair proceeding in omitting to acquaint the reader where the Doctor's words were to be found. With respect to the first article, I think it proved in my former paper. Whether it be or not, I am as willing as J. E. can be that you and your readers fhould judge; and I beg, that what is there advanced may be compared with his letters. But, at the fame time, I would with the general reasoning thould be attended to rather than particular expreffions, which may often be made to fignify what the writer never meant. And here I would juft beg leave to inform J. E. if he do not know it already, that, among the various kinds of bipeds, there is a certain little creature called "A word-catcher, that lives on fyllables:" and there is alfo another creature that delights itself in truth, which it feeks to acquire by clear intuition and comprehenfive argument. I need not tell him that, between thefe two, there is not much affinity. In answer to the charge of unfair proceeding, J. E. pleads, that in his pamphlet, to which he refers, he has told from whence his quotations were taken. I have never read his pamphlet ; nor do I think it worth my while and it is likely, Mr. Urban, that 49 out of 50 of your readers are in the fame predicament. His own vanity, I prefume, will allow the computation to be moderate. But it does not appear, from any thing in his letter, what book of Dr. P's he was cenfuring; and, tho' he fays it is mentioned in the title-page of his own performance, this certainly was not to be learned from the Magazine. J. E. then has failed in his attempt to refute the second article of the charge. I do not, nevertheless, affirm it is impoffible he fhould be innocent * I never pretended to have read it; and nothing could be farther from my thoughts than to declare the defign of it. What I have faid relates to the letter only, which, by means of the wide circulation of your Mifcellany, might give a great many people a very falfe idea of a man who is an honour to his coun try and to human nature. Seals of last Monih illustrated.-Cowdray Picture vindicated. 577 with refpect to his intention; and I wish he may juftify himself thus far to his own heart: but, when a man wishes to render another odious (a thing which J. E. feems to avow), it will be nothing very wonderful if, to effect fo good à purpose, he should deviate a little from the line of rectitude. With regard to what is faid of my mutilating the paffages I undertook to refore, I fhall only obfèrve, that I did not deny, or think of denying, that thofe paffages were actually extant in Dr. P's pamphlet. All that I pretended to do was, to fhew that, taken in their true connection, they conveyed no fuch meaning as the letter-writer gave them. There was no need, therefore, of my tranfcribing them at length; and I was, befides, unwilling to be too prolix. It was never my intention to conceal any thing Dr. P. has advanced. On the contrary, I fhould heartily rejoice to hear that his publication went through many editions, and that it was read by every ingenuous perfon; I fhould, otherwife, be indeed very unworthy of the name I have affumed. J. E. is in much too great bafe to congratulate himself on the fuccefs of his worthy endeavours, when he fays, "It is fufficient pleasure and reward to me, for the part I have taken, that my fervices have fo far effected their end, that the friends of Dr. P. if not himself, are afhamed of the language he has ufed, and with to interpret what he too precipitately divulged, fome by recourfe to figure, others to vifionary zeal." Now where did J. E. learn that the Doctor's friends were ashamed of his language? As for the Monthly Review, of late, I apprehend nobody has efteemed it very friendly to him. But it was there J. E. found the figures; and the afcription of visionary zeal he, without doubt, fuppofes to be mine. Others of his fuppofitions are as well founded *. To fhew what this is built upon, I fhall just fay that, 'after having done what I propofed (which was to prove that Dr. P. meant nothing more than to promote the caufe of truth by reason and argument alone), I hinted a person who fbould account him a vifionary might tolerate him notwithflanding; but nothing I flatter myself, that I have a foundation formewhat more Jolid for my opinion concern ing ib. fentiments of a very rest ectable body of the elbed clergy, though I do not conceive myfelf obliged to acquaint him with it. GENT. MAG. July, 1787. could be more evident, than that it was let him determine. I have only to add, Mr. Urban, that, if it fuits your convenience, I shall be glad of a place for this paper in your next. left the gentlemán fhould think himfelf neglected. PHILALETHES. Mr. URBAN. June 26. THE feal, No 7, in plate II. of laft letters in the middle are THS, or rather IHC, for Jefus bominum confervator, inftead of falvator, for we find both marks in ancient ufe. The words in the legend are to be read, eft or erit amor meus, i. e. Jefus. The two laft letters may be worn off, perhaps the afteritk mistaken, or substituted for them. Is there not a fpecies of anachro nifm in Detector's letter, p. 468? An author, writing in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and fpeaking of our forefathers, might refer fo far back as to the Saxon heptarchy, or the Norman inva fion. I, therefore, fee no impropriety in the Cowdray picture; for whoever has visited the old manfions of our no bility and gentry, or the ruins of ancient castles and religious houfes, muft have obferved a plurality of chimnies, confidered formerly no doubt as greatly ornamental, being railed in fingle or clustered columns, and not unfrequently wreathed. According to modern talte, we cannot bring them into any architec tural beauty, for which reafon Art endeavours to conceal them. Notwithftanding, fome few years ago, I saw an exception in a country-house near Liverpool, where all the flues united at the centre, forming a kind of turret or cupola on the top of the roof. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, T OBSERVATOR. July 14. T is a matter of doubt with me, whether the first feat of Sir Walter Raleigh in your last month's Miscellany, pl. I. fig. 1. is not one of the latest inftances of the "knight artned cap-a pee on a caparifoned horfe." Will it be thought too forced an explanation of fig. 7, to read it Amor me eut, or eyt, and to explain it, Love.confrais me, q. d. the love of Jefus, whofe intials, cross, and perhaps the 4 narts with |