ledge of individuals as to thefe particulars into the moft refpectable public channels of information; and as I parpofe to make future communications to the publick through the prefent mcdium, relative to my inveftigation of this fubject; I take the opportunity of intimating, that information (poft paid), relative to the above particulars, will be thankfully received. If, when gentlemen are defcribing the extent or prevalence of the difeafe, they would alfo fpeak as to the leading fymptoms of it which they have obferved, it might poffibly be attended with fome utility. It may not be unimportant to fome of your readers to be informed, that this fubject is already before his Grace the Duke of Bedford and the Board of Agriculture, through the medium of the interefting Annals published by Arthur Young, efq. F.R.S. their intelligent and indefatigable fecreW. P. WHYTE.

ary.

years fince I was at

A Kilkenny, when I collected the following particulars, which I now fend from memory, to gratify one of your correfpondents.

The caftle of Kilkenny was built by Randolph Earl of Chelter about the middle of the 18th century. Its original form occupied a large quadrangle. It is beautifully fituated on an eminence on the banks of the river Nure, and commands an extenfive profpect over the city of Kilkenny and the neighbouring country. The apartments are fpacious, and fome of them magnificent, and decorated with portraits of the antient and illuftrious family of Butler. But the moft remarkable ornament in the cafile is rich and curious tapeftry, of great dimenfions, reprefenting the hiftory of the Spanish monarchy, from the expulfion of the Moors to the beginning of the last century. It was executed by the fair hands of Spanish nuns, and brought from Vigo by the late Duke of Ormond. The fiables are detached from the cafile, and admired for their fpacioufnefs and grandeur. Near the caftle is a beautiful bridge, built with black marble, over the Nure, remarkable for the curious elliptical arches. The air here is remarkably pure and falubrious; and the cafile and

The cell of Kenny,, Lat. Canicus,

city being feated on a dry foil, with a rapid river flowing through it, renders a refidence here extremely pleafaut. The Kilkenny coal is of a peculiar quality; it makes an intenfe pure hot fire, and emits no fioke. The Kilkenny marble is well known in Ire land, is fufceptible and admits a beautiful polish in chimney-pieces and other ornaments. Many of the buildings are compofed of this durable material, and fome of the fireets are paved with it. Fogs are very unufual here, and the water is pure and tranfparent. The natives give you the following fummary of the perfections that they enjoye Fire without fmoke; Air without fog; Water without mud; Land without bog;

and Streets paved with marble. I muft regret that it is not in my power to accompany this flight defcription (which I collected from my own obfervations and fome general information that I received) with a drawing or fketch of the caftle; but, as my ftay was fhort, I could not afford time, nei

ther can I pofitively vouch for the vtracity of fome of the particulars recited above; but the infertion in your valuable publication will, no doubt, gratify many of your readers, and finnulate fome gentleman refident upon the fpot to tranfinit a more accurate and minute detail. I have only to add, that the caftle of Kilkenny is the principal country refidence of the prefent Earl of Ormond. His creation took place only a few years fince. ANTHONY SINNOT

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 20.

N the days of more fprightly age and better times I have been honoured by your notice. I flatter inyfelf fome genial fire full remains. Having been lately under circunfiances of confinement and pain, fimilar, in that refpect, to the feelings of our extraordinary and fublime poet, Young,

"Like him I ftrove with wakeful melody To clear the fullen gloom."

I found every line an anodyne of pain. Having, four or five years back, food forth in defence of our language against the challenges and attacks of fome French literati, and publifhed a whimfical defence and retorted fatire i in Latin and French; and laft year re newed the fame, in part, at Edinburgh, (fee the Latin epitaph in the Edinburgh

Maga

downwards. The pillars which part the nave from the fides ailes are on one fide low, round, maffy, with capitals of inverted horns, and arches obtufely pointed. Thofe oppofite have more flender and higher pillars, and a much fharper arch,, In the clerestory are four fquare windows on each fide; the cafement part confifting of a quaterfoil. The roof is of wood; and in two compartments neareft to the chancel, are remains of very rich pierced work; for the church appears to have been much beautified in the latter end of Hen. VII. or beginning of Hen. VIII. The rafters reft on fione corbels of human faces. On the wall in the centre of the arch, which parts the nave from the chancels, are the royal arms, modern; on the wall of the Weft end, where the tower begins, the Belief, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments. The font for immerfion, which is under the tower, has an octangular bafon, a fimilar fhaft diminfhing upwards, and a round pedeftal. There are five bells; and a fione ftair-cafe from the tower, defcending into one of the ailes, and a bracket, for an image under the arch of the tower. In a fide aile there is a feat, inclofed by the remains of a rich wooden fcreen; and in the wall a niche, and fmall door-way, of the 15th century.

In the oppofite aile is a window of the 12th century, a round door-way with a billeted moulding, and a much later fquare window full of fragments of ftained glafs, once plainly intended to reprefent the feven Sacraments. In the upper parts, alternately repeated, are, ift. Bendy, wavy of fix Or and Arg. (by miftake, or elfe affumed for difference, for three pales wavy Or, Lord Molyns, as will appear from the next coat); 2d. Sa. two bars Arg. in fefs a mullet of 2d, and in chief three plates (Fitzjohn, of Heytefbury, adopted by Sir Walter de Hungerford, who married Elizabeth, daughter and heirefs of Sir Adam Fitzjohn). Below are, Ift. a bifhop with his crofier, three perfons kneeling before him, one holding a cafket (or reliquary), as many perfons with the clerical tonfure, one with the ftem of a crofs over his fhoulder, another holding a book open A title which the Hungerfords bore temp. Hen. VI.

(the Sacrament of Ordination); 2d. a fick man naked in bed, his arms upon his breaft, a woman ftanding behind, other perfons on one fide, one of which is prieft, ftooping towards the fick man, with a wafer in one hand and a cros in the other; a man kneeling on the other fide with a cafket open in his hand; fomething at the bottom of the bed, fmall, and refembling a roundmade arm-chair, for abfolution, extreme unction, &c. 8d. A man in front of a building with the ftole over his fhoulders, four perfons ftanding be hind; a woman in a modeft inclining pofture on one fide; other fide mutilated (matrimony at the church door), 4. Extremely mutilated, a inan pointing to a book open on a table, the pages marked with fmall billets; another kneeling with hands in a praying pofture juft by, and underneath, Johannes (Penance, qu.) In the centre of all is a fquare-fhouldered fhort figure of our Saviour, tolerably complete, with a crown of thorns and glory, divided into rofe-like fections. Scraps of writing are interfperfed, as Ave, Dei, nob. hc nos re, &c. A pillar between the chancel and this aile is pierced for view of the elevation of the Hoft. In the chancel is a pifcina, and fentences of Scripture painted on the walls around.

In the pews, are remains of very rich carved work. Oppofite the clerk's defk, on a pew-door, are the royal arms, with the griffin and greyhound fupporters, thus marking the period when the church was fo beautified; the rofe and thifile in the corners above. Below, a man's head in profile, with an antick beard, and a round flouched hat, cocked up behind, within a circle of rofe-fiems, branching out at four angles, into as many rofes. In another, two heads in circles, refpecting. each other. In others, a fingle head above, and rofes and flowers below. By the way, I fhall here fuggeft it as likely, that the common ornament of rofes, in thefe wooden carved works and fereens, may poffibly point out a period, at leaft with refpect to the latter, when wood fuperfeded the ufc of flone, ufed for fuch fabricks more antiently, as is plain.

The pincipal epitaphs are thefe : In the chancel wall, on a brafs : "Obdormivit in Dominà placide MARIA SHEWRING, Virgo, uxor, mater amabilis."

Ob.

14 Aug. 1711. MARIA, optimæ fpei lia, ob. Londini, Sept. 3, 1715."

made fome, progrefs in the various Eranches of the Belles Lettres, I hope

Mr. THOMAS ERLE, jun. merchant, who dyed Aug. 13, 1702."..

"DANIEL HARTFORD, B. D. late rector, Nov. 4, 1679.".

JOHN ADSHAW, minifter of God's word, 1645."

THOMAS ERLE, late of Efcot, gentleman, 1637."

[Mr. Giles Earle has now an eftate there.]

"JOHN JENNER, 1670."

Several to the name of Oatridge. One with a crofs patonce and creft, a goat's head iffuing from a ducal coronet. Several for Harewell and Eftcourt; and

Here lyeth the body of ANNE, the daughter of Sir Thomas Earle, kut. and wife of Henry Crefwicke, efq. She departed this life the 18th day of January, in the 63d year of her age, and of our Lord 1728

The manor has paffed fucceffively from Ethelwulph to the abbey of Malmesbury; the Crown; Baynton; Lord Lucas; his fole daughter, Mary, Countess of Kent, created Baronefs

Lucas, of Crudwell, 7th May, 1663 +: and, by marriage of the hon. Philip Yorke to Lady Jemima Campbell, eldest grand-daughter of the laft Earl of Kent, to the Hardwicke family, where it now remains.

There was once a chapel at Efteourt; and land was granted, in Crudwell, 10 Ralph de Hunlavinton. Regifir. Malmfb. penès Rememb. Regis num. LXX. 108. (Jones's Index); ubi plura Collect. for Wiltshire, penès T.D, F.

AS

Mr. URBAN, Wells, Norfolk, Jan. 28. S the lamp of erudition, which once diffufed its rays with fuch peculiar fplendour through our ifle, may now be faid to glimmer in. the facket, I hope I do not violate the rules of metaphor by calling Wells the very favc-all of literature; and, as the Clergy are in general fuppofed to have

*See Collinfon's Somerfetfhire, vol. II. p.143.; and Collins's Baronetage, vol. IV. P. 343.

This account is not given as perfet.

a

might conjecturally be afcribed to me muni fcriptures, credite Grail; my pen as minifter of the parish. Credite Ronever produced a fyllable which was few very humble efforts of genius liable to public infpection, excepting a which embellith the Parish Regifter. No, Mr. Urban, upon the word of a gentleman, the reputation of a clergyman, and the credit of a Johnian, I am not Anfonius, Telonicus, Vicinus, Viator, or any fuch thing; by which renunciation of all claim to any literary glory I mean to appeafe any jealoufies which might invade my philological flock, and put it out of their power to exclaim against nie," tulit alter honores."

Whether this cacoethes fcribendi is imported by the look, as death from the bafilifk; by the touch, as electricity by a conductor; by miafma, as the prefent affliction which pervades Spain; I know not; but the fimilitude and correfponding circumftances of evidence in favour of the laft conjecture. each difeafe carry a fort of corroborating Thanks to my ftars, I have escapedyes" me fervavit Apollo."

One word more, and I have done. Allow me, Sir, to infimuate, that it would contribute greatly to the excellence of your Publication, were you to infift upon the real fignature of each of your correfpondents; for,

Y

"Dum latent, ut marina Filium dicunt Thetidis."

Thofe who are lefs modeft and unaffuming than myfelf. have it in their Power to thrust their profane heads into chaplets defined for more claffic brows,

I am forry my parishioners have incurred the ridicule of the cynic Stator; and moft fincerely fhould I rejoice were difficulties. But, truth to fay, their cafe it in my power to affift them in their appears defperate; and you will readily acknowledge, Mr. Urban, that, as a young author, it would be imprudent in me to meddle with it, I fall not, however, imitate the corrupt practice of the world, and appear against them in this the day of their vifitation. Believe me, Sir, I wish them every poffible fuccefs, and fhall never ceufe to pray to Apollo for their deliverance.

Curator fine Curá, fed non Sinecure.

Mr.