behaviour when I was there (9th Oct. 1803) was orderly and devout, and divine fervice impreffively performed by the worthy Chaplain; the Pfalm for the day was the 79th; and the three men under fentence of death were fenfibly affected by the twelfth verfe : "O let the forrowful fighing of the pri Loners come before Thee !" This gaol (as well as many others) has its inconveniencies or defects. The convicts remain a long while in the common gaol after fentence, indifcriminately affociating with those committed for trial. There is no proper feparation of young beginners from old offenders. It is worthy of remark, and much to the honour of the humane keeper, that one prifoner, fome time after his difcharge, faid the day of his commitment was the moft fortunate in his life, as he had learned a trade (that of a fawyer) by which he could earn two guineas a week. There were committed to the Bridewell, from the 4th October, 1802, to the 5th October, 1803, prifoners 85; their earnings during that period were 1171. 8s.; of this fum the prifoners received one half, the Gaoler one quarter, and the other quarter was paid to the county flock. Launceston Gaol for FELONS formerly belonged to the Conftable of the Caftle, but has fince been purchafed by the County. Gaoler, Jolin Mules, falary 161. fees 13 s. 4 d.; Chaplain, Rev. Mr. Lethbridge, fa ary 20 l. duty once a week: Surgeon, Mr. Roe, falary 161.; prifoners, 18th October, 1803, one. Allowance 20 oz. of wheaten bread daily. In 1779, five hundred pounds of the King's bounty was appropriated to this gaol. In a paffage 5 feet wide, there are for men four new cells (8 feet by 6, and feet four inches high), a large day-room, and fpacions couri, with a pump of excellent water in it, which, running through the neceffary, keeps it clean. The County humanely allows coals to the day-room. The cells have boarded floors. Clean ftraw, two blankets and a rug, are allowed each Prifoner. Over thefe rooms are the Gaoler's apartments. Adjoining is the old gaol, in the upper part of which is a well-ventilated room with a fire-place in it, for women felons. Three fleeping-cells, with bedding, the fame as the men's, and nearly the fame fize, open into it. They have a fpacious being no chapel, divine fervice is performed in a little room below. The Mayor fends the prifoners weekly one fhilling's worth of beft wheaten bread: (weight, 18th October, 1803, 6 lb.). No memorial of the legacy in the gaol. The A& for preferving the health of prifoners is hung up, but not the claufe againft fpirituous liquors. The prifon clean. The dungeons of the old gaol were filled up with lumber, and no appearance of their being ever ufed fince the new cells were built. Launceston town-gaol is over the South gate. One room, about 12 feet fquare, with a fire-place and three cagecells with ftraw on the floor for felons; over which is a large room for debtors. The whole prifon is in a very filthy and ruinous ftate. A debtor had efcaped juft before my vifit. The gaoler, who is the Town-Serjeant, lives at a distance. Allowance three halfpence a day. No court. No water. Neither Act for preferving health, or claufe against fpirituous liquors hung up. Prifoner none, 18th October, 1803. Town Bridewell, is in the workhoufe yard. A room with two finall fleeping-cells, one for nien, the other for women. Straw on a boarded floor, very dirty. No water. Prisoners are not permitted the ufe of the court-yard. Mafter of the work-houfe the keeper; falary 67. allowance the fame as the poor. I mufi now conclude, or I fhall not leave fpace fufficient to fay with what cordial efteem and regard I am moft fincerely yours, JAS. NEILD. Chelsea, November 5, 1803. Mr. URBAN, Birmingham, June 7. THE hiftory of Kit's Coity TH Houfe, by H. C. p. 409, is fo erroneous, that I muft trouble you to infert the following, by way of correction; though I do not profefs to give even an epitome of all that has been written by different authors refpecting this curious relick of antiquity. By" Kentergen and Horlus, two Danish princes," I fuppofe H. C. means Catigern and Horfa, who were flain at Aylesford, where this rude ftructure is fituate; but the former chieftain was a Briton, and brother to Vortimer; and the latter a Saxon, a Saxon, bearing the fame affinity to Hengift for the battle was fought A. D. 455, three hundred years before the Danes molested this Ifland. The most popular, I do not fay the beft, opinion is, that Horfa was buried at Horfted, a place a few miles diftant; and that Kit's Coity Houfe was the fepulchral memorial of Catigern; though Mr. King labours hard to prove it a British Cromlech, ufed for the horrid rites of Druidical worship, when human facrifices were offered; its fituation being in a beautiful amphitheatre of hills, "from which hills many thousands and even myriads of people might diftinctly fee all that paffed upon the furface of the top ftone *." The late Mr. Boys (whofe death I fincerely lament, having often experienced his friendly counfel on literary fubjects.) thought he had difcovered in the name of Kit's Coity Houfe a corruption of the Saxon Lio carez honr, i. e. the place of contention between Catigern and Horfat. This etymology, though rather fanciful, feems better founded than the fuppofition of Horfa's memory being yet preferved in Horfted; as villages of that name occur in feveral counties, and are plainly compounded of two Saxon words, meaning the place for Horfes; as diftinguished from the Cow-ley, the shep-ley, and other allotments of our rural forefathers. I am alfo forry I cannot praife the correctnefs of H. C.'s drawing. The top ftone in fig. 3 is too jag ged; and in fig. 4 the rules of perfpective and thadow have been fo little obferved, that it is doubtful whether a fide or back view be intended. 1 fhould prefume the latter. "Ofteofpermum foliis oppofitis palmatis. Hort. Cliff. 424. Hort. Upf. 274. Gran. Virg. 133. foliis Virginianum. Chryfanthemum perenne Virgini anum majus, platani Orientalis foliis., Moris. Hill. 3. p. 22. f. 6. t. 7. f. 55. Habitat in Virginiâ." Some of your botanical correfpondents will, I hope, favour me with their remarks on the above paffage; and inform me whether it alludes to the Rev. Robert Uvedale, LL.D. of Enfield, Middlefex, fellow of Trinity college, Cambridge, rector of Orpington, Kent, and father of the Rev. Robert Uvedale, D. D. vicar of Enfield, 1721 to 1731. Dr. Uvedale was a learned Divine and celebrated Botanist, and an intimate friend of Archbishop Tillotfon and Sir Hans Sloane *. R. U. MR. URBAN, Homefield, July 23. A exploits of our Ships of War are every day repeated, and our Navy riding triumphant on the feas, one cannot but admire with aftonifhment the accounts of fuch Ta time like this, when the wondrous machines; but I with many more living nearly in the centre of our Ifland, and never traveling farther than the London market, cannot have the pleafure of beholding fuch mechanical fabrications without going to fome fea-port. If any of your correfpondents will favour me by faying where a real and exact model of a Fighting Ship may be feen (if an attendant to explain the utility of the feveral parts to an inquifitive vifitor the better), they will greatly oblige Yours, &c. RUSTICUS. * Some account of Dr. Uvedale may be feen in Hutchins's Dorfetfhire, vol. 41. p. 503, 2d edit, Mr. |