STANFORD

No. 26.-Ancient Irish Brass Rings. Nos. 28, 29.-Ancient Rings of Silver.

No. 27.-The same united.

Nos. 30, 31.-Attenuated Rings of Gold.

RING-MONEY, OR MANILLAS.

Nos. 1-13, 15-23, are of Gold, and found in Ireland.

No. 14.-Of Brass, plated with Gold.

No. 24.-An ancient Brass or Bronze Manilla, found in Monaghan.
No. 25.-Manilla, fabricated in England, and now passing current in Africa.

On Ancient Residences in England. From Burton's Anatomie of Melancholy.'-(p. 260.)

THE Bishop of Exeter had fourteen several houses, all furnished, in times past. In Italy, though they reside in cities in winter, which is more gentlemanlike, all the summer they come abroad to their country houses, to recreate themselves. Our gentry in England live most part in the country, except it be some few castles, building still in bottoms, saith Jovius, or near woods, corona arborum virentium. You shall know a village by a tuft of trees at or about it, to avoid those strong winds wherewith the island is infested, and cold winter-blasts. Some discommend moted houses as unwholesome. So Camden saith of Ewelme (in Oxfordshire), that it was therefore unfrequented, ob stagni vicini halitus, and all such places as be near lakes and rivers. But I am of opinion that these inconveniences will be mitigated or easily corrected by good fires; as one reports of Venice, that graveolentia, or fog of the moors, is sufficiently qualified by these innumerable smoaks. Nay more, Thomas Philot. Ravennas, a great physician, contends that the Venetians are generally longer lived than any city in Europe, and live many of them 120 years. But it is not water generally that so much offends, as the slime and noisome smells that accompany such overflowed places, which is but at some few seasons after a flood, and is sufficiently recompensed with sweet smells and aspects in summer- Ver pingit vario gemmantia prata colore'-and many other commodities of pleasure and profit; or else may be corrected if the site of it be somewhat remote from the water, as Lindley [in Leicestershire, the seat of the writer's brother]-Orton super montem, (the possession of Robert Bradshaw, Esq.)—Drayton (of George Purefoy, Esq.), or a little more elevated, though nearer, as Caucut (the possession of William Purefoy, Esq.; as Amington (the seat of Sir John Rep-, pington, knight); Polesworth (Sir Henry Goodiere's, lately deceased); Weddington (the dwelling-house of Hum. Adderly, Esq.)-to insist on such places best to me known-upon the river of Anker, in Warwickshire; GENT. MAG. VOL. VII.

Swarston, (Sir John Harpur's, lately deceased); and Drakesley (Sir George Greslie's, knt.), upon Trent. Or, however they may be unseasonable in winter, or at some times, they have their good use in summer.

If so be that their means be so slender as they may not admit of any such variety, but must determine once for all, and make one house serve each season. I know no men that have given better rules in this behalf than our husbandry writers. Cato and Columella prescribe a good house to stand by a navigable river, good highways, near some city, and in a good soile; but that is more for commodity than health. The best soil commonly yields the worst aire; a dry sandy plat is fittest to build upon, and such as is rather hilly than plain, full of downs, a Cotswold country, as being most commodious for hawking, hunting, wood, waters, and all manner of pleasures. Perigort, in France, is barren, yet by reason of the excellencie of the aire, and such pleasures that it affords, much inhabited by the nobility; as Noremberg in Germany, Toledo in Spain. Our countryman, Tusser, will tell us so much, that the fieldome is for profit, the woodland for pleasure and health. The one, commonly deep clay, therefore noisome in winter, and subject to bad highwaies; the other a dry sand. Provision may be had elsewhere; and our townes are frequently bigger in the woodland than the fieldome, more frequent and populous, and gentlemen more delight to dwell in such places. Sutton Coldfield, in Warwickshire, where I was once a grammar scholar, may be a sufficient witness, which stands, as Camden notes, loco ingrato et sterili, but in an excellent aire, and full of all manner of pleasures. Wadley, in Berkshire (the seat of G. Purefoy, Esq.), is situate in a vale; though not so fertile a soil as some vales afford, yet a most commodious site, wholesome, in a delicious aire, a rich and pleasant seat. So Segrave, in Leicestershire (which towne I am now bound to remember, for I am now incumbent of that rectory, presented thereto by my right honourable patron the Lord Berkley), is sited in a champian, at the edge of the Wold, and more barren than the villages about it, yet no place likely yields a better aire. And he that built 3 C

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that faire house, Wollerton, in Notinghamshire (Sir Francis Willoughby), Is much to be commended, though the tract be sandy and barren about it, for making choice of such a place. Constantine, lib. 2. cap. de Agriculturâ, praiseth mountains, hilly, steep places, above the rest by the sea side, and such as look toward the north, by some great river, as Formark, in Derbyshire, on the Trent (the dwelling of Sir Thos. Burdet, kt. baronet), environed with hills, open only to the north, like Mount Edgmond [read Mount Edgcomb] in Cornwall, which Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, so much admires for an excellent seat. Such as is the general site of Bohemia, Serenat Boreas,' the north wind clarified; but near lakes or marishes, in holes, obscure places, or to the south and west, he utterly disproves those winds are unwholesome, putrifying, and make inen subject to diseases. The best building for health, according to him, is in high places, and in an excellent prospect, like that of Cuddeston, in Oxfordshire, which place, I must honoris ergo mention, is lately and fairly built by John Bancroft, Dr. of Divinity, my quondam tutor in Christchurch, Oxon, now the Right Rev. Lord Bishop of Oxon, who built this house for himself and his successors, in a good aire, good prospect, good soile, both for profit and pleasure, not so easily to be matched. P. Crescentius, in his Lib. de Agricul., is very copious on this subject, how a house should be wholesomly sited, in a good coast, good air. wind, &c. Varro de Re Rust. forbids lakes and rivers, marish and manured grounds; they cause a bad air, gross diseases hard to be cured: if it be so as he cannot help it, 'better, as he adviseth, sell thine house and land, than lose thine health.' He that respects not this in chusing of his seat, or building his house, is mente captus, mad, Cato saith, and his dwelling next to hell itself, according to Columella. He commends, in conclusion, the middle of a hill, upon a descent. Baptista Porta Villa censures Varro, Cato, Columella, and those ancient rusticks, approving many things, disallowing some; and will by all means have the front of a house stand to the south, which, how it may be good in Italy or hotter climes, I know not; in our

northern countries I am sure it is best. Stephanus, a Frenchman, de Prædio Rust. lib. 1. cap. 4. subscribes to this; approving especially the descent of a hill, south or south-east, with trees to the north, so that it be well watered; a condition in all sites which must not be omitted, as Herbastein inculcates. Julius Cæsar Claudinus, a physician (Consult. 24), for a nobleman in Poland melancholy given, adviseth him to dwell in a house inclining to the east, and by all means to provide the air be clear and sweet; which Montanus counselleth the Earl of Monfort, his patient, to inhabit a pleasant house and in a good aire. If it be so, the natural site may not be altered of our city, town, village, yet by artificial means it may be helped. In hot countries, therefore, they make the skirts of their cities very narrow, all over Spain, Africk, Italy, Greece, and many cities of France, in Languedoc especially and Provence, those southern parts. Monpelier, the habitation and university of physicians, is so built with high houses, narrow streets, to divert the sun's scalding raies, which Tacitus commends, lib. 15. Annal. as most agreeing to their health, because the height of buildings and narrowness of streets keep away sunbeams.' Some cities use galleries, or arched cloysters, towards the streets, as Damascus, Bologna, Padua, Berne in Switzerland, West-chester with us, as well to avoid tempests as the sun's scorching heats. They build on high hills in hot countries for more air; or to the seaside, as Baiæ, Naples. In our northern coasts we are opposite; we commend broad, open, fair streets, as most befitting and agreeing to our clime. We build in bottoms for warmth; and that site of Mitylene, in the island of Lesbos, in the Ægean Sea, which Vitruvius so much discommends, (magnificently built with fair houses, sed imprudenter positam, unadvisedly sited, because it lay along to the south, and when the south wind blew, the people were all sick,) would make an excellent site in our northern climes.

A good prospect alone will ease melancholy, as Comesius contends, lib. 2. 7. de Sale. The citizens of Barcino, in Catalonia, saith hc, otherwise penned in, melancholy, and stirring little

abroad, are much delighted with that pleasant prospect their city hath to the sea, which, like that of old Athens, besides Ægina, Salamina, and many pleasant islands, had all the variety of delicious objects. So are those Neapolitans and inhabitants of Geneva to see the ships, boats, and passengers go by, out of their windows, their whole cities being sited on the side of a hill, like Pera by Constantinople, so that each house almost hath a free prospect to the sea, as some part of London hath to the Thames; or to have a free prospect all over the city at once, as at Granada, in Spain, and at Fez, in Africk, the river running betwixt two declining hills, the steepness causeth each house almost, as well to oversee, as to be overseen of the rest. Every country is full of such delightsome prospects, as well within land as by sea, as Hermon and Rama in Palestina, Colalo in Italy, the top of Tagitus, or Acrochorinthus, that old decayed castle in Corinth, from which Peloponesus, Greece, the Ionian and Egean seas, were semel et simul at one view to be taken. In Egypt, the square top of the great Pyramid, 300 yards in height, and so the Sultan's palace in Grand Cairo, the country being a plain, hath a marvellous fair prospect, as well over Nilus, as that great city, five Italian miles long and two broad, by the river side. From Mount Sion, in Jerusalem, the Holy Land is to be seen of all sides: such high places are infinite. With us those of the best taste are Glassenbury Tower, Bever Castle, Rodway Grange, Walsby in Lincolnshire, where I lately received a

real kindness (lately resigned for some specialle reasons), by the munificence of the Right Honourable my noble Lady and Patroness, the Lady Frances Countess dowager of Exeter; and two among the rest, which I might not omit for vicinities sake, Oldbury, in the confines of Warwickshire, where I have often looked about me with great delight, at the foot of which hill (at Lindley, in Leicestershire, the possession and dwelling place of Ralph Burton, Esq. my lately deceased father) I was born; and Hanbury, in Staffordshire, contiguous to which is Falde, a pleasant village, and an ancient patrimony belonging to our family, now in the possession of mine elder brother, William Burton, Esq. Barclay, the Scot, commends that of Greenwich Tower for one of the best prospects in Europe, to see London on the one side, the Thames, ships, and pleasant meadows on the other. There be they that say as much or more of St. Mark's steeple at Venice. Yet these are at too great distance. Some are especially affected with such objects as be near, to see passengers go by in some great rodeway, or boats in a river—in subjectum forum despicere,-to oversee a fair, a market-place, or out of a pleasant window into some thoroughfare street, to behold a continual concourse, a promiscuous rout coming and going, as a multitude of spectators at a theatre, a mask, or some publick show. But I rove the sum is this, that variety of actions, objects, aire, places, are excellent good in this infirmity (Melancholy) and all others, good for man, good for beast.