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lines in a regular manner, paffing up to the other extremity at the East. This chapel of the Galilee was originally conftructed in the Saxon fiyle, about the year 1153, by Bp. Hugh Pudley; and repaired about 1406, in the pointed arch manner, by Bp. Langley. The blending together of these two species of architecture has a happy and pic turefque effect, not alone from this junction, but by the arrangement of the plan, it being divided into five ailes North and South, and four ailes Weft and Eaft, by clufters of columns fupporting femicircular arches, &c. At the Eaft ends of the three centre ailes are preferved nearly entire three curious altars that nearch to the North is Our Lady of Pity's altar; the next, being in the centre of the two, Our Lady's altar, where directly before its fieps is the tomb of Bp. Langley: the third altar is St. Bede's, and before it alfo is the tomb whereon ftood the fhrine of this memorable faint. At the North-welt angle of the chapel is a finall oratory. To purfue the farther elucidation of the decorations, namely the font, iron pulpit, and the hiftorical paintings in the windows, which were here formerly feen, would be to add more regrets to thofe I must now give way to, by recounting that the condition of this confecrated place was the moft reprehenfible, in regard to the roof being in many parts left without covering, the pavement firewed with heaps of coals and all kinds of building materials, the North aile partitioned off into offices, and the above-mentioned oratory converted into a clofet for occafional retirement. How the extremes of fentiment are here excited! delight in particularizing the architectural objects, mortification in witnelfing their abuse! Thefe perceptions naturally belong to me. Others, who are the guardians of this chapel, it is apparent, thought in a very different manner; one of whoin was pleafed to turn my pleadings in behalf of fach fuffering relicks into a theme of merriment, and fported many good jokes at my coft on the occafion. I vented fighs, he burfs of laughter; I was dif couraged, he elevated! Ye three recefles that fill authenticate biftoric facts, ye were witness to this conference. Shame then be where it may! And he who fhould have been moft forward to fet afide the premeditated blow then hovering over thele walls,

who has feated himself as prime imitator and preferver of our antient architectural glories, to come thefe ailes among, and tread where Durham's benefactors lie interred; when, after turning afkance his eyes on this and that, to give his orders thus: "All this work mult come down, I want a walk here!"

By way of digreflion; it is a matter of much difpute with fome Antiquaries, whether this chapel is down at prefent or ftanding. I have heard it affirmed by more than one, that it had been deftroyed; by many more than one, that it had not been deftroyed: that it was ftanding indeed, but in fach a ftate that-Why, filence will beft become me on this occafion. No doubt, after this hesitation on my part, fome communicative friend will fupply the deficiency, and clear up this matter, which at prefent refts on very doubtful authority.

The nave and fide ailes of the cathedral, in whole works all the magnificent features of the Saxon tafic are confpicuous, marking thereby the art of defign when this church began to he erected, in 1093, in the life-time of Bp. Aldwine, are feen in fingle and clustered columns, the former of which have indents of varioutly deviced forms, perpendicular, fpiral, diamond-wife, or diagonal; in the windows, which of later times have had infertious of the pointed arch tracing; in the doorways, where the enrichments on them are moft elaborate; and in the groins, by whole interfection they of necellity produce a combination of curious femicircular and pointed fweeps. The proportions of all thefe parts are truly jutt, and their dimenfions are on an extended feale, vying in this refpect with any other of our religious fructures.

Speaking thus on the merits of the Architect, I muft alfo do the like juftice, from a retrospective view, to the other Artifts, who had contributed to decorate every space between coluinn and column, with a font, a pavement, crois, brafles, tombs, holy-water ba fons, fereens, altars, and the feulptures and paintings belonging there. unto, by fuppofing their qualifications equal at leaft to thofe prefumptive glories which till endure. What particulars are there left to warrant this partiality of mine in regard to fuch an union of church adornments itemed in the hiftory of Durham? The font.

Here I was much in doubt if any part paintings, and other embellishments · of this fubject, though covered with very finall traces of thele performanabundance of carvings and tracery, was ces are now to be met with in the of the pure antient flock. The blue South aile of the choir. Againûì fome pavement, bearing the figure of a crofs, columns at the Fatt end of the fame thewing how far women were permitted was placed the portentous Black Rood to advance into the church before the of Scotland, brought by the King of Fifteenth Century. Grave fione of Scots from Holy-rood houfe to the prior Caftell, brats gone; ditto of walls of Durham, and there Won Robert Nevil, bithop of this fee; brats by our victorious countrymen under gone. Tomb of Ralph Nevil and his Queen Philippa in the battle before wife; and the tomb of John Nevil, his cited. This Rood reprefented our Saion, and his wife, likewife: This fa- viour, with St. Mary, and St. John; ther and fon were the two great the carvings and gildings furround heroes of the famous battle fought ing them were of the moft fplendid with the king of the Scots under the kind, and extended in height to the walls of this city in the reign of Ed- very top of the groins of this aile. ward III; queen Philippa his confort I might almost spare myself the troubeing at the head of the English in ble to fay. that all my diligence in the this decifive conteft; Edward then pur- endeavour to find out any veftiges of fuing his conquis in France. Here this extraordinery trophy of Philippa's any exiting witneffes in this part victory were entirely nielefs. On the of the church muft clofe; when, pro- South fide of this aile is a door entereeeding on my plan, I next specify the ing into the Revelry; here change Janthern in the great tower, which has had but fall employ fince the tower is fituated in the centre between reign of Henry VIII; and that merely the North and South tranfepts. In in the removal of the altar table at the directing my fight upward, to behold Eat end, which altar was for the prithe afcending vifion of galleries, win- vate ufe of the bithop, &c. (entirely dows, groins, &c. &c. all in the finest putting out of the quellion the jewels, fiyle of the pointed arch workmanship; plate, &c. &c.)-1 enumerated much of I gazed but to be tranfported at fuch the original furniture, in benches, confummate perfection. The North chefts, and almeries for the keeping of and South tranfepts; the architecture the veftments belonging to the choir; here is a continuation of the mode feen and, however incredible it may feem in the nave, whofe Eaftern fides are to certain minds, four of the antient partitioned off into fix diftinét chapels, copes are here to be feen. To me dedicated to as many Saints; have of thefe copes appeared precious famples courfe been demolished. At the South of the very great perfection to which end of the South tranfept is the great the art of embroidery was carried clock; the ornaments wherewith it is by our ancestors: most probably others charged are given with a liberal hand, but may look over their curious threads they are of that questionable fashion we with the fame apathy as is fo conftantly demurred upon with regard to the font. evinced when church vifitors are de The fereen entering into the choir; the fired to wonder at the monument of method of enrichments laid over this an Edward, an Henry, an Eleanor, fereen give thofe kind of carvings in or a Philippa, a founder of a church, wood which are fo peculiar to the reign or a Chritian knight. Not fo would of Charles H. when Dr. Cofens was their privation of paffion remain, if opbishop, evincing very little genius in pofed to the Weimintier abbey waxthe carver, or inclination in him to ad- work, Exeter cathedral's “notomize," here to the character of the edinice. The St. Alban's abbey's bones of Duke original fereen (which I much fufpect Humphry, Rippon miatter's St. Wilis yet ftanding behind the above dif- fred's kneedle, Glofter cathedral's whifguifing piece of perverted fkill) was an pering hole, Salisbury and Lichfield excentive high-wrought object of the cathedrals in their new-modcled choirs, kind, comprifing, befides the entrance, and other the like edifying and touriltitwo tiers of niches, containing the fia-cal fights, calculated as well for grown, tnes of kings, queens, founders, and benefactors. North aile of the choir; the chapels in this range were very fumptuonly fet forth, with ftatacs,

as little gentlemen time-killers of the prefent day. Apologifing for this vein of faney, I beg permillion to proceed. One of thefe copes under our notice is

hiftorical,

hiftorical, as it was given to the church by the ever-to-be-adored queen Philippa, in honour of the Darhain conquest; the other three want the names of their donor. Indeed there is a fifth cope: though of more modern ufe, it is not the lefs to be valued; being a prefent from the religious, and the brave, though unfortunate Charles I. It may

not be without its purpofe to fet down

that on this veliment there is worked a

figure of a man with a decapitated head in his hand. The vergers tell you it is meant for David carrying the head of Goliah. Imagining I may yet more furprife the premifed few, thefe very copes, among others of the like make, were, until within thefe 20 years, worn by the clergy at the celebration of the Communion, to add dignity and foleninity to fo awful a facrament. Great fublimity is ftill maintained on thefe occafions, from the very impreffive and devout affifiance the fervice acquires by the addition of the organ, and the voices of the choir, which never fail to infufe into the fouls of the communicants a real fenfe of the benefits they there receive. JOHN CARTER.

(To be continued.)

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 11. MONG the various attentions en

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A have lately ifited from the preis, MONG the publications which there is none which has excited more general notice than Dr. Vincent's "Defence of Public Education." The fubject difcuffed in this defence is doubtlefs of the greatest importance, and the authors concerned are all men of known literary eminence. The pamphlet itfelf is eertainly well written; and the charge of neglect in the religious inftruction of youth, as far as it inay have been directed against Westminfter School, is ably refitted and denied. But it appears to me, after an attentive perufal of the above pamphlet, that Dr. Vincent, in his zeal to defend the feminary over which he prefides from what he deems an unjust accufa tion, has mifunderflood and confequently mifreprefented the obfervations both of the Bishop of Meath, and of the Matter of the Temple. But, that you may not fuppofe my opinion to be

A deavoured, in this are or ipccu- founded on fuperficial view of this

lative benevolence, to be fhewn to the condition of the poor, who is not fhocked at the molt wretched fiate of parith-apprentices; who, having been ftarved or beaten to death at one or two different times, are now (as your Obituary, vol. LXXI. p. 1187, informs ns) farved en maffe, not fewer than 20 having been apprenticed to the manufactory there recorded, and the greater number from Greenwich! You may record parishes who had the virtue to refift the folicitations of the late Sir Richard Arkwright for his cottonwork, and others who diftrufted a pinmanufacturer. But this does not account for or obviate the grievance. That there are many orphans who, unhappily, cannot be provided for without a workhoute, may be true; and that there are many boys and girls, under 15 and 20, who will not do the work which the overfeers find for them, but pawn their tools and run away, or get fent to Bridewell; but the more thefe grievances are complained of, the lefs they are remedied. While all the neceffaries of life are advanced, and raGENT. MAG. January, 1802.

pamphlet, I will fubmit to the confideration of your readers a few remarks, in confirmation of it.

At the commencement of his attack upon the Bishop of Meath, Dr. Vincent obferves, that "without any knowtedge of his own, without any enquiry or examination, the Bishop affumes the teftimony of Dr. Rennell as incontrover tible; not reflecting that, if Dr. Rennell's evidence cannot be fubflantiated, the Bishop's accufation has nothing for its fupport." Now I would afk, Mr. Urban, upon what authority Dr. Vincent afferts, that the Bishop charges the mafters of public fchools with neg lect of Christian instruction, “without any knowledge of his own, without inquiry or examination?" and where does it appear, that the Bishop founds this accufation" folely on the testimony of Dr. Rennell ?" Surely not in the Bishop's note to which Dr. Vincent alludes, for that speaks a very different language. The Bishop there fays, that he was about to lay fomething on this fubject (as it must appear to all unprejudiced readers) from his own obfervation;

fervation; but withheld it, hecaufe he difcovered that he was anticipated in his intended remarks (a circumftance which he feems not to have been aware of when he first defigned to publifh thofe remarks) by Dr. Rennell. Dr. Rennell's ftrictures therefore did not fugget the idea in the first instance to the Bishop of Meath; they fimply expreffed his fentiments. This mistake has caufed Dr. Vincent to charge the Mafier of the Temple very unjufily with being the Bishop's Guide" and "Oracle" in this accufation, which (as far as appears from what has as yet been pub lithed) he certainly was not. The Bishop thought for himself upon the fubject; and, I conceive, will fhortly declare fo to the publick.

Surely Dr. V. mifanderftands Dr. R., when he accufes him of infinuating in his fermon, that "a preference is due to the religious education of charity fchools compared with infiraction in public feminaries." Dr. R. has no where faid or even hinted fuch an idea. Ilis argument in the palage quoted by Dr. V. is obviouíly the following: that "fince the religious part of education is neglected in thofe femimaries where young perfons of rank and fortune are inftructed, there is the greater neceflity of paying peculiar attention to the religious education of the peor; in order that the poor may not be corrupted by the protigate example and irreligious conduct of thofe in the upper ranks of life, which fuch a neglect of their religious education muft neceflarily produce." Every unprejudiced perfon who will read the fermon alluded to, and mark its general defin, will perceive, I think, that this is Dr. R's meaning, and that his words are totally incapable of any other interpretation.

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Dr. V. in p. 14 of his pamphlet, accutes Dr. R. of being guilty of a great abfurdity in objecting to the " reading of Pagan authors in fchools," and call ing this cuftom a "pagan education." Now, it is impoflible for any one who knows any thing of the learned Mafter of the Temple, and who has read the whole of his fermon, to understand the language of the note alluded to in the fente here given to it. The note is as follows: There is fcarcely an internal danger which we fear but what is to be afcribed to a Pagan education under Chriflian eftablithments in a Chriftian country." Is it reasonable upole, Mr. Urban, that fo great

5

an admirer of antient learning and claffical literature as Dr. R. could mean by this remark to object to the reading of Pagun authors in public fchools ?— Impothible. The general drift and tenor of all his ftrictures on this fubject fulliciently fhew, that he means by a Pagan education, an education in which the reading of Pagan authors confiitutes the whole business; while the reading of books which contain inftruction upon the " fubject of Chriftianity makes no part of it." The reading of the antient claflics in schools is certainly very proper; but if it be not accompanied by " reading of the facred feriptures occafionally, the education may jufely be called a Pagan education." And this I apprehend is Dr. R's idea.

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The laft remark which I have to offer upon this pamphlet is, that Dr. V. indirectly charges the Master of the Temple with having accufed public fchools and feminaries of a "neglect of religious worship and facred ordinances :" an accufation which he "has no where advanced!" Dr. R. fpeaks exclufively of religious inftruétion. Nothing can be clearer or more reafonable than his idea. He contends for the oblervance in all public feminaries of a regular fuftem of elementary inftruction on the fubject of Revealed Religion; a fyftem in which the principal evidences of Chriftianity, its diftinguishing doctrines and duties, and the outlines of Sacred History, are fo taught, that the fcholars cannot fail of acquir ing a reafonable degree of information upon thefe most important topicks. It is impoflible to understand his ftrictures in any other fenfe than this. But when Dr. R. cenfures public fchools and feminaries for their neglect of religious instruction, what does Dr. V. reply ? He anfwers very properly in one part of his pamphlet, that at Weftminster the fcholars tranflate the Scriptures, learn the Catechifin, liften occationally to Catechetical Lectures, and hear trequent explanations of Grotius; but in another part he fates as a refutation of Dr. R's charge, that " prayers are read ten times a day," and that the fenior boys "receive the Sacrament four times a year." This is doubtless very commendable; but what anfwer is it to Dr. R.? If the boys attend prayers twenty times a day, they may not obtain from their teachers that religious inftruction for which the Mafter of the Temple contends, or acquire any ade

quate

quate information on the fubject of revealed truth. Dr. R. who was himfelf educated in public feminaries, does not want to be informed by Dr, V. that religious forms and ordinances are obferved in fuch places. He has feen enough to know that they may or may not be attended with religious edification. He is not an advocate for forms, but for realities.

The above errors into which Dr. V. has fallen, having given occafion to a large portion of irrelevant argument in his pamphlet, it is neceflary that they fhould be pointed out; that the readers of it, while they admire the interefting manner and animated ftyle of the author, may not (to adopt his own exprellion) "miliake rhetoric for argument, and affertion for truth." O. Y.

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 23.

PERMIT me, as no abler perfon has undertaken the talk, to furnish you with fome further account of the late Admiral Blankett *, whofe eminent fervices to his country, though not of the brilliant kind to attract univerfal attention, yet were fo meritorious that they fhould not be paffed over in filence.

The Admiral's first introduction to the Royal Navy was very early, through Captain Hughes (afterwards Sir Edward) in the Somerfet, in the war of 1759. As a midshipman, after ferving the ufual period of fix years, he was made lieutenant into the Alarm, and cruifed for five or fix weeks in a certain latitude, for the celebrated Spanish prize Hermione, but the fhip was unfortunately for her officers recalled; and a fucceeding frigate captured her, by which each of the lieutenants gained upwards of 18,000l. and the captain a noble fortune. Admiral Blankett ferved as a lieutenant more than 20 years, was at the taking of Quebec, Montreal, Louifburg, and Cherberg, in And by his knowledge of the French language, of which, and Italian, he was perfect mnafter, as well as Portuguese, he obtained material information from the French officers who were prifoners at Montreal, of the interior fiate of that country, and the probability of a North-Weft paflage through America to the Pacific Ocean, and made many charts with notes upon this fubject; and, his opinion being ftrongly confirmed, that an opening might be traced in the Southern Ocean,

that war.

*See vol. LXXI. p. 1153:

and the paffage from thence to Hudfon's Bay traced, he laid his papers before the Earl of Sandwich firft Lord of the Admiralty at that time, (foon after the peace of 1763,) and was encouraged to proceed to Ruffia, to profecute his enquiries into the Rulian difcoveries; he remained at the Emprefs's court a confiderable time, and was much noticed there. On his return, Lord Sandwich faid, no voyage of difcovery was then in contempla tion, but that if any thing of the fort took place, he fhould be employed. Not long after, Captains Cook and King were fent on an expedition round the world; and I have good reafon to believe Lord S. furnished thofe, able navigators with Admiral Blankett's charts and obfervations, but without employing the author of them, in his favourite purfuit. In 1770, he was appointed a fieutenant in the Albion, with Captain Barrington, upon the Spanish difturbance, relating to Falkland itland, and was firft lieutenant with Lord Keppel in the victory in the action with the French fleet, and from her promoted to be mafter and commander of the Nymph floop; went to India with the fquadron of his old friend Sir Edward Hughes; and was made a poft captain, by Sir Edward, into the Rippon, a fhip which required repairs, and was fent to England for that purpofe, and confirmed Captain Blankett's poft commiffion. On the peace of 1783, he was appointed to command the Thetis frigate, upon the Mediteranean ftation, where there were firong fymptoms of a fimilar mutiny at Spithead, to the laft at Bantry Bay; the men infifing to be paid off there inftead of going round to the ports where the hips are ufually paid off; and the Thetis was the only fhip that got up her ancor and proceeded to fea. In the Mediterranean he was honoured with the friendship of the king of Naples, who frequently cruized with him, and twice prefented him with his picture elegantly fet with diamonds. On his return he was fent out with a broad pendant, to convoy a Blect to China, and went from thence to India, and brought a convoy home from thence. Soon after his arrival, Lord Spencer fent him with a fall fquadron to the Cape of Good Hope; and was followed afterwards by another, fquadron under Lord Keith, who in conjunction reduced that colony to

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