F B Mr. URBAN, July 20. EING on a tour this fummer through a part of Cleveland, I was induced to vifit, among other curiofities in that district, a fingular monument, fituate upon the fummit of a kill, about four miles South-east from the market-town of Stokefley, and called by the neighbouring people the Wain-flones, fuppofed by fome to be a Danith monument. It confifts of a rude collection of ftones, many of them of an immenfe fize, and all in their natural polition except one, which ftands erect, and feems probably to have been fo placed by the hands of man. Upon one of thefe ftones, which is now laid fat upon the ground, but which like the former flood erect till about 50 years ago, when it was wantonly thrown down, there is the infeription, fig. 2. The letters are four inches in length, and about half an inch deep. Perhaps fome of your ingenious correfpondents may be able to decypher the infeription, and throw a light on the etymology of the name, which nny lead to a conjecture at the probable meaning of this curious monuJ. G. ment. Mr.-URBAN, TH Notts, July 25. HE little inclosed sketch (fig. $) was taken about three years ago, and it was at that time an exact refemblance of the perforated rock near the village of Eyam, in which the pious and worthy Mr. Mompellon, the rector, punctually performed the facred duties of his office to the diftreffed in habitants during the time of the plague in that village. The picturefque fituation of this rock is fo elegantly and accurately defcribed by your ingenious correfpondent Mifs Seward, that I fhall not attempt a further defeription of the drawing. H. R. * See our Poetical Department, p. 836. + See Mifs Seward's letter in the Geur. Mag. vol. LXXI. p. 300. GENT. MAG. September, 1801. To the Gentlemen who have undertaken the Orphan-caufe of the poor deftitute Gates and Walls of York against the barbarous Perfecutions of their legal Guardians. THE fpirited, patriotic, and difin terested exertions which you have made in defence of those walls which have fo frequently defended your anceftors, claim the gratitude of your countrymen, and the thanks of every Antiquary in the world; and I heartily with that your names and labours may be tranfmitted to pofterity in matèriass more durable than stone. I have with incredible pains and expence unravelled a plot which threatened all your proceedings with infenfible annihilation; and, as I have at length brought the difcovery to maturity, I think it proper no longer to defer laying before you the following narrative. As I was taking my evening walk, not long ago, in the outskirts of the town, and cafting a, melancholy look upon the walls as we look upon the countenance of a friend whom we fufpect to be in a confumption, and whofe lo's we are likely foon to lament, a perfon caught my attention who was standing clote by one of the angles, his mouth in contact with the wall. After a fhort jirk with his head, he left his pofition, and paffed haftily by me with a finiling countenance, and crunching fomething in his mouth which founded like nuts. I went up to the place which he had left, and found a cavity in the ftone refembling the fchoolboy's bite of an apple; the marks of the teeth were visible, with the diftinct appearances of their intervals and projections. My furprize was greatly increated the next day, when I had an opportunity at church of obferring the upper-jaw of the fame gentleman as he was yawning during fermon, that his teeth were formed and arranged in a manner exactly cortefpondent to the hollow in the ftone, which I had very minutely obferved. You will easily imagine that I frequently ruminated upon thefe occurrences; but as I was not fo completely converted to the principles of the new philofophy as to give credit and belief to every pretenfion of fupernatural power, to all their diabolical fleights and wonders at the firft fuggeftion, I fufpended my conjectures, or at kaft buried buried them in filence, trufting that fome future opportunity would difcover the myftery; which at length happened. A fhower of rain, not many days afterwards, had obliged me to take fhelter in the porch at the fign of the Hole in the Wall, when an extraordinary noife reached my ears from one of the rooms in the houfe; it was as if feveral perfons were chewing together egg-fhells or uncracked lobffer-claws; but it more ftrongly recalled to my mind the crunching of the gentleman whom I had met on a former evening. This awakened my curiofity to fuch a degree, that without 'ceremony I opened the door of the room whence the noife iflued, and difcovered at the farther end of it a company of about 12 or 13 fitting round a table, at the upper end of which was a perfon, whofe face was not abfolutely unknown to me, ftanding up as if he was difcuffing the merits of the dish which he was about to carve. I immediately recog nized the rest of the company to be very refpectable members of the Corporation. The fubject of their repaft, which at first I had mifiaken for the remnant of a large venifon pafty, proved upon farther infpection to be the corner of an old-wall. I will not prolong my fory by deferibing the very extraordinary fenfa tions of furprize and alarm which this fight occafioned, nor fatigue von with enumerating the various labours and cofts with which I traced up the difcovery of this tremendous myfiery. I will confine myfelf to the refult of my enquiries. Not many years ago, it must be fresh in the remembrance of vou all, a perfon, who, according to the inge nious defeription of the day, was caught breakfafting upon the point of a rock by fome of our cruizers off the coaft of Norway, was brought to London, and exhibited under the denomination of the Stone-eater. As there is no city in the world fo ready to give encouragement to ingenuity of every defeription, his fuccefs was confiderable; and he might have continued to this time exciting the wonder and envy of the city at his digeftive powers if an unfortunate accident had not topped his career. One day, as he was fianding at the door of a barber's fhop, he was fo unlucky as to miflake the new-fhaven gloffy poll of an opulent citizen for one of thofe round fione balls which fre quently terminate the upper end of a gate-poft, with fomething of a fimilar utility. He had made fo deep a rent in the pericranium of the poor gentleman, that he found himself obliged not only to quit the town, but to have it publifhed in the papers that he was dead, in order to avoid the profecutions of the family. He had fubfifted himfelf amongfi old ruins ever fince, till he was allured to York by an advertifement, announcing the intentions of the Corporation to apply to parliament for liberty to demolith their gates and walls. He arrived at York juft at the moment when your glorious refiflance had checked, for a time at leaft, the progrefs of that nefarious purpofe, and when they were in the utmost fate of defpair, having applied in vain for atfiftance to an old gentleman on whofe friendship they had every reafon in the world to rely, and who was formerly very much diftinguifhed for his capricious removal of walls, buildings, and churches; but he had been for fome time too much occupied with bufinefs on the Continent to attend to their inferior claims. He, therefore, found no difficulty in obtaining his own terms, and an agreement was drawn up, which is now depofited in the hands of the town-clerk, by which it was fettled, that he was not only to devour a great portion of the walls himfelf, but to infiruct them in the fame tecolythizing art. By which means it was hoped the object in difpute might wholly difappear, as is not unfrequently the cafe, before the contention itself was terminated. I cannot find that he experienced any confiderable difficulty in the undertaking, as the jaws he had to deal with were in a fiate of furprizing agility and firength from frequent practice. His fir experiments were gentle, beginning with the rotten corners of the walls, from a very natural suppofition, that the favourinefs of the morfel would obviate any liule objection arifing from the novelty of the maftication. He proceeded to the dry mouldering parts, which, when highly peppered with Roman brickdufi, were fwallowed with facility. In short, his fuccefs has been fo great, that there are feveral of them at this time able to digeft large fquare pieces of lime-fione out of the wall with much less uneafnefs than they have frequently fuffered after White.— after a fupper at the manfion-houfe; and there can be no doubt that, in a very thort time, the Roman grit-fione will yield equally to their increafing of voracity and digeftion; in fo powers much, that the Body are at prefent in the greatet hilarity with the expectation, that fhortly there fhall not remain one Roman ftone upon another, and every remnant be deftroyed which might recall to remembrance that York was ever the refidence of that unaldermanlike nation. I have spared no trouble in inveftigating every particular of this extraordinary bufinefs, and been curious to enquire whether fuch uncommon repatis were not attended with peculiar diforders; and have been informed that, in one or two inflances, the limeftone, meeting with more acidity than ufual, had created a degree of fermentation in the bowels that for fome time was thought to be dangerous; that others had felt fymptoms not unlike thofe accompanying the gravel, together with eruptions upon the thin, but that by timely application of the metallic tractors, with copious draughts of the cordial balm of Gilead, the antiimpetigines, the anti-bilious elixir, the ethereal anodyne cilence, the mephitic gus, and foda waters, with a fufficient quantity of Leake's jully famous patent pills, and other infallible medicines, they had quickly recovered. I had no footer made this difcovery complete than I thought it right to withhold it from you no longer, in order that you might be convinced that, notwithstanding your apparent fuccefs, your labour in the fervice which you have fo nobly elpoufed is by no means finifhed, and to explain to you the reafon of what must have appeared very unaccountable, I mean the great increafe in the number of breaches, and the great enlargement of thofe which were there before, much beyond what time and neglect could have occafioned. d As to myfelf, I fball keep a very fufpicious watch over the enemy, and not fuifler my induftry to flacken in the fupport of a caufe which every man of feeling, every man of fpirit, whoever regards the welfare, the refpectability, the name, and glory of his native country, muft reverence and honour. 1 am, Goutlemen, with the higheft Telpect, your very fincere well-wifher, TICHOPHYLAX. URBAN . who feems above threefcore and ten. Two correfpondents (pp. 402, 617) a phyfical improbability, it introduces R. C. Mr. URBAN, Aug. 25. TRANSLATION of the elegant A and claffical letter which was found among the papers of the late ingenious Mr. Henderson, and inferted in your Mifcellany, vol. LXIX. p. 752, having been requested by Agricola, I waited with impatience until fome ingenious correfpondent fhould offer it to the publick through the medium of your monthly Magazine. Some time has now elapfed, Mr. Urban, fince this requeft was made, and no correfpondent has yet favoured you with a tranflation. That a letter of fuch excellence and entertainment fhould not have met with admirers is, in my opinion, furprizing. The conclufion is remarkably elegant, and certainly merits the attention of all lovers of pure and claffical Latinity. I have undertaken the task; and if the following attempt, imperfect as it is, and which fails, I confefs, in doing justice to the original, fhould meet with your approbation, I hope you will infert it both for the fatisfaction of Agricola and of the publick. J. S. D. "To the very learned and eminent Lawyer, J. URI. "A report has reached me, that you have relinquished your theological ftudies, and have enrolled yourself in the lift of thofe who are styled lawyers, and for that reafon have begun to apply yourfelf to the ftudy of the law in the Temple at London. At first I gave no credit to this report; but when you did not appear at the time prefcribed by the Univerfity all my doubts vanished. Although your own good fente can fufficiently inform you, and at the fame time you can with facility distinguish, Quid diftent æra lupinis,' HOR. yet, induced by the friendship which I entertain for you, permit me to state to you in three words the difference which, in my opinion, exifts between the Divine and the Lawyer. The former, by the mandate of God, fearches the Holy Scriptures, and meditates both day and night on the law of the Lord on this account the molt beneficial effects proceed from his tongue. But what, O Lawyers, is your employment? Seduced by a love of money, you are continually employed in the study of human laws and of the Pandects of unless it is bound by filver chains, is the Juftinian; for which reafon your tongue, caufe of the most pernicious confequences. Divines heap up for themfelves treasures in heaven, where neither ruft nor moth doth corrupt; you heap up for yourselves riches on earth, which are liable to the cafualties of fortune, and which perith on the the approach of death. Divines, in explaining the functions of God, are guided by the impulse of a divine fpirit; but in your fits you are governed either by the stars, by the hidden affections of the body, or by fome genius. Divines are ufeful in many refpects, and in this in particular, because they gain many fouls to Chrift; but you are ufelefs, excepting that you return an answer to unjust and importanate clamours. Divines pafs their lives in ferenity of mind, tranquillity of foul, and fimplicity of heart; but you spend your whole lives in law-fuits, and lacerate one another like dogs. Divines, because they bear the Scriptures in their breaft, and prefer truth to falfhood, and things eternal to things temporal, will fhine hereafter like the ftars; but you, because you bear the Scriptures on your back, and prefer falfhood to truth, and things temporal to things eternal, in blacknefs fhall ref. mble the coal. But you will perhaps remind me of the old proverb, Dat Juftinianus honores; Pontificat Mofes cum facco per civitatem.' But if Divines are in this world expofed to fcoffs, wretchedness, and difhon ur, and beg through the city, what, let me aik, will it derogate from their happiness and honour; fince, as the Scripture bears witness, they are highly honoured in the pre'fence of the Lord, and crowned with greater honour in the celeftial glory hereafter. Whereas the wealth, honours, and dignities, of Lawyers are generally upjutt, vain, and tranfitory, and end, like them felves, with the most unpropitious omens. "But do not be caft down: what I have hitherto faid has been in jeft; I now write on ferious bufinefs. "An excellent young man, and an intimate hiend of mine, courted a girl of great property, and who lives not far from Oxford; and although the had promifed, under her own hand, to marry him in a few weeks, yet now, having changed her mind, the has refuted to comply. My friend is much enraged, and is refolved to profecute her. As toon, therefore, as I was informed of this, I obtained a promife from him that you should plead his caufe. Come, therefore, immediately to Oxford, and undertake it. You may expect a handsome reward; there are both (uficient evidence and witneffes. In the mean time, it is my fervent prayer, that both on yourself, your best of fathers, and all those who are my friends, this year may dawn with the fairest profpect of happiness, may brighten as if advances, and at its expiration may thine forth in full splendour. Farewell. Oxford, Dec. 28th, 1784. "P. S. Meffrs. Kett *, Dornfordt, Headley+, Bonwell, Agutter, and May, with whom I have frequen ly dined, anxiously with for your arrival." Mr. URBAN, Guernsey, Aug. 12. MAY it not be doubted whether an Architect has, in his XXXIft and XXXVth Numbers on architectonic innovations, done all that juftice to the writings of the late Sir C. Wren that a name fo eminent deferves from the feientific Englishman? For, fhould it be admitted that the Gothic mode of building is entitled to his unqualified aflertions in its favour, "the pride of human art," "the excellence of all earthly fcientific labours ;" and, aflu red as I am of the many defects of every other when compared with the fcientific productions in the Arts among our ancestors, I fhall not dispute the fuitableness of thefe expreflions of affection towards his defervedly-favourite ftudy; I must yet be allowed to fay, that, had a due regard been paid to the difference there is between itigmatizing the architecture called Gothic, and giving it that name for no other purpote than as a term of reproach, a barbarous appellation, an invidious defignation, a vulgar epithet, an ignorant by-word, a low nickname," the charge would never have appeared at all, or, if it had, the complainings of an Architect would have been directed towards fome other earlier writers. There has, indeed, of late been a kind of merit af fumed from treating the memory of Sir C. Wren with a degree of obloquy. Whether this began with the Author of the "Anecdotes of Painting," I do not undertake to determine. I have Fellow of Trinity college, Oxford, author of that excellent and highly-esteemed work, "Hiftory the Interpreter of Prophecy." He preached the Bampton lectures in 1790; for an account of which fee vol. LXI. p. 939. + Author of fome law tracts. He died July 1, 1797. See vol. LXVII. p. 8co. Late fcholar of Trinity college, Oxford; auther of "Poems and other Pieces," 1786, and editor of "Select Beauties of antient English Poetry, with Remarks," 1788. He died Nov 1, 1788. See vol. LVIII. p. 1033. § Late Fellow of Trinity college. He died Sept. 6, 1796. See vol. LXVI. p. 757; and vol. LXVII. p. 3. In Bowles's Poems there are two copies of verfes to his muchlamented memory. Of Magdalen college, Oxford; now chaplain to the Asylum. azet |