is calculated to excite and reward the attention of all lovers of national history and political anecdote.

Philip Lord Wharton, who died at Wooburn in 1695, was the fourth, and not the first Peer of his family, as described by J. B. p. 328 of your Qc tober Magazine. He was a staunch Whig; and his daughter Philadelphia having married Sir Geo. Lockhart, the Lord President, her father interfered in the education of his grandson George L. the Author of the Memoirs, &c. and in vain' attempted to suppress the Jacobite and Tory principles which the Jalter seems very early to have imbibed. In the Wharton genealogy I find no mention of Sir Polycarpus Wharton, inquired for by J. B. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

H

ANTH. AUFRERE.

March 12, AVING heard that that antient relick, London Wall, was about to be pulled down, I repaired thither a few days since, to survey its ruins, before the hand of Modern Improvement shall have swept them away from the surface of the earth.

The present remains are in length 75 yards; their height about nine feet; and thickness six. On the North side the wall has been undermined, and shews a layer of Roman bricks level with the pavement of the street, an undoubted proof of its antiquity. The texture of the wall is, like all other Roman remains, exceedingly firm and well cemented.

London Wall is stated to have been built by Theodosius about the year 368, who also repaired several Cities and Castles, and fortified others. He Jeft, says one of the Historians of London (Noorthouck), every thing so secure, that peace was preserved in Britain till the departure of the Romans in the reign of Honorius, A. D.

402.

In the reign of King John part of the old wall, which had been demolished after the Norman Conquest, was repaired, and carried up of the same thickness, and a height of between eight and nine feet, by the Barons.

Upon this was raised a wall wholly of brick, terminating in battlements, two feet four inches thick, and about eight feet in height. The whole was

Tour through various Parts of the NETHERLANDS and GERMANY in 1815. (Continued from page 104.)

I of the History

my last letter I gave a brief

of Hainault down to the beginning of the 15th century, at which period the Counts of Hainault possessed the Sovereignty of Holland, Zealand, and

Friesland. This rich inheritance devolved in 1417 upon Jacoba, the only daughter of William Count of Hainault, and Margaret of Burgundy. The records of history seldom present a narrative more interesting than that of the Princess Jacoba of Hainault.

Sunt lacrymæ rerum, et mentem mor

talia tangunt.

For a detailed account of her misfortunes, I refer your Readers to Shaw's Sketches of the History of the Austrian Netherlands; from which I chiefly extract the following abridgement, Connected by consanguinity and affinity with some of the most illustrious families in Europe, and distinguished by beauty and mentai accomplishments, Jacoba was married, at the age of fifteen, to the Duke of Touraine, the second son of Charles the Sixth, King of France, who, by the death of his elder brother, became Dauphin a few months after their marriage. The flattering prospect which was opened to her by this alliance soon vanished; for the Dauphin in the second year of his

marriage

many rich and powerful provinces stimulated his eagerness to annul the former marriage of Jacoba. But, whilst the fond pair were indulging the hope of a speedy accomplishment of their wishes, a powerful obstacle to their union arose in a kinsman of Jacoba-namely, Philip Duke of Burgundy, who, already master of large domains in the Netherlands, was ambitious to augment the power of his House in that country. He aspired to the fair inheritance of the Princess of Hainault; and, with that view, he resolved to use all the efforts of political intrigue to prevent her union with the Duke of Gloucester. But, notwithstanding his powerful opposition to the match, especially in the English Court, where his iufluence was very considerable, he was unable to hinder the lovers from accomplishing their purpose. The former marriage of Jacoba was annulled by the Pope; and the Princess of Hainault came to England, where she was received with the most flattering marks of attention by the King and the Court, and married with pomp to the Duke of Gloucester, who now took the title of Count of Hainault, Holland, and Zealand. After some time, the Duke, accompanied by a body of English troops, passed over with the Princess into Hainault, and every thing seemed to promise to Jacoba an uninterrupted enjoyment of public and domestic felicity; but this sunshine of prosperity was of short duration, and Jacoba's union with the Duke of Gloucester proved to her a source of greater misery than she had yet experienced. Soon after her return to Hainault, she began to experience the effects of the resentment of the Duke of Burgundy, who inveighed with the utmost severity against the levity of her conduct; and, after loud complaints of the wrong done to the Duke of Brabant, he joined his troops to those of that Prince, to oppose the Duke of Gloucester, who was defeated with great slaughter at Braine in Hainault. The Duke returned to England with the view of collecting a force sufficient to make head against his antagonists.Jacoba at first had determined to accompany him thither; but, overcome by the importunate supplications of the citizens of Mons, the capital of Hainault, who promised to defend her

during the absence of the Duke, she consented to fix her abode in that city, until succours should arrive from England; but she soon had cause to repent of the confidence she had placed in their promises; for the people of Mons having been seduced from their allegiance by the intrigues of the Duke of Burgundy, she was com pelled to surrender, and was conveyed as a prisoner to Ghent. The courage and address of Jacoba did not forsake her in this extremity. Disguising herself in man's apparel, and passing through the streets of Ghent by night, she found means to escape into her province of Holland, where she soon found herself at the head of a numerous force, with which she overpowered her disaffected subjects in that province. The Duke of Burgundy, who, under the pretext of supporting the rights of the Duke of Brabant, had an eye to the aggrandisement of his own House, alarmed at the success of Jacoba in Holland, advanced with his army into that country, where he defeated an English force which had been sent thither in aid of the Princess.

This was a severe blow to Jacoba, which was followed by fresh disasters in other parts of her dominions. These calamities were followed by domestic troubles, which more deeply affected her mind. Pope Martin the Fifth having triumphed over Benedict the Thirteenth, by whom the first marriage of Jacoba had been annulled, was prevailed upon by the Duke of Burgundy to confirm that marriage, and to issue a bull dissolving the second marriage, with the addition of a severe clause, by which the Princess was restrained from marrying the Duke of Gloucester, even if she should become a widow by the death of the Duke of Brabant. But the blow that imprinted the deepest wound on the mind of Jacoba was the inconstancy of the Duke of Gloucester, who, under various pretexts, which thinly veiled his passion for the daughter of Lord Cobham, whom he afterwards married, declared his purpose of separating himself from the Princess of Hainault, thereby leaving a stain upon his memory which all his great and popular qualities will never be able to efface. Pressed by the armies of the Duke of Burgundy, deserted by her perfidious subjects, forsaken by the ungrateful Duke of Gloucester,

Gloucester, the unfortunate Jacoba, after many displays of a noble and valorous spirit, was obliged to yield to the Duke of Burgundy; and the terms which he prescribed were of such a nature, as plainly declared the motives by which his conduct had been actuated. By one article it was stipulated, that all the dominions of Jacoba were to be governed by himself, with the title of her Lieutenant. By another, that, being now a widow by the death of the Duke of Brabant, she should never contract a future marriage without the consent of the States of her Provinces, and of the Duke of Burgundy. Jacoba was not more than twenty-seven years of age when these rigorous terms were imposed upon her; she submitted to her hard fate with a magnanimity becoming her character as a heroine; and being divested of all authority as a Sovereign, while she retained the name, she retired into the province of Zealand, where she lived upon a slender revenue which she derived from the parsimony of the Duke of Burgundy. There, in those islands that are surrounded by the Scheld, where, dividing itself into many channels, it pours its waters into the ocean, she indulged those melancholy reflections which the unhappy vicissitudes of her life suggested. Some times, to relieve her melancholy, she joined in the village sports, and instituted exercises in horsemanship, or in archery. In these exercises, where in she excelled, and which were so congenial to ber active and martial spirit, she was delighted to win the prize, and to be proclaimed by the voice of the villagers Queen of the rural sports. In this manner did Jacoba pass her time during a period of two years, her beauty as yet but little impaired by time or the sorrows of her life-when Love, which had proved to her the source of so many distresses, once more surprised her in her retirement, and prepared for her new misfortunes. Among the Lords of Holland who had been the most adverse to the interests of Jacoba, and who on that account had been rewarded by the Duke of Burgundy, was Francis Borselen, Lord of Martendyke. This nobleman had large estates in Zealand, where he frequently resided. His opposition to the interests of Jacoba had long kept him at a distance from that Princess, till

1

an accidental circumstance gained him access to her acquaintance. Margaret of Burgundy, the mother of Jacoba, having sent to her daughter a present of a fine horse from Hainault, and Jacoba, from the extreme meanness of the Duke of Burgundy, being unable to reward the person by whom the horse had been brought, so liberally as she wished; Borselen, who had learned her distress from a domestic, took occasion to present a large sum of money with such grace and delicacy, that Jacoba, touched with his generous sympathy, forgot all the prejudices which she had entertained against him, and intimated her wish to have an opportunity of thanking her benefactor in person.Kindness from a person whom she had long considered as an enemy had melted the tender heart of Jacoba into feelings of admiration and gratitude, and personal acquaintance prepossessed her still more in his favour (for Borselen to a graceful person joined the most engaging manners). At length her inclination for this nobleman, growing from solitude in which she lived, and perhaps also from the hard restraints imposed upon her, became so strong that she could no longer conceal the impression he had made upon her, and love took possession of her heart. The charms of Jacoba had inspired Borselen with a reciprocal passion; and she, forgetting the disparity of rank and the engagements by which she was fettered, united herself with him by a private marriage.

the

The Duke of Burgundy, who had employed spies to watch the conduct of Jacoba, was no sooner apprised of this marriage, than he hastened to draw from it that advantage which it afforded to his ambition. While he was inwardly pleased, he affected violent indignation. He ordered Borselen to be apprehended, and conveyed from Zealand to the Castle of Rupelmonde in Flanders, situated at the confluence of the Rupel and the Scheld. With a view to alarm the Princess, he caused a report to be spread that the life of Borselen was to atone for the presumption of which he had been guilty. The Princess of Hainault, anxious to save her husband from the danger in which his attachment to her had involved him, collected a small force in Zealand; and, having armed some vessels,

sailed

sailed up the Scheld, in the hope of surprising Rupelmonde, and delivering her husband. On her approach to Rupelmonde, she learned that her design had been discovered, that a large force was assembled to oppose her, and that the Duke himself was in the Castle. Disappointed in her scheme, Jacoba requested that she might be permitted, from her vessel, to speak with her cousin the Duke of Burgundy; and the Duke not declining the conference, she inquired with all the anxiety that love and fear could dictate, if her husband was yet alive. In answer to this question, the Duke gave orders, that Borselen should be brought forth on the ter race that bordered the river, when the Princess, with the ardour that was natural to her, transported with joy at the sight of a person so dear, and forgetting that she gave herself into the power of the Duke, instantly sprang from her vessel upon the shore, and ran with eagerness to embrace her husband.

Philip had now obtained the advantage which he sought; and, detaining the Princess, wrought so powerfully on her fears for her husband, that, in order to purchase his freedom and his life, she consented to yield up to the Duke of Burgundy the entire Sovereignty of all her dominion: so high a price did the ambition of the Duke require for the ransom of Borselen! Having thus obtained the object to which he had long aspired, the Duke took possession of the States of Jacoba; and those Provinces, accustomed to his controul, and by his arts indisposed towards their Sovereign, submitted quietly to his Government. In return for the ample concessions of Jacoba, certain estates were assigned to her in Holland and Zealand, which she, setting no bounds to her affection for her husband, bestowed in free gift on Borselen, who was created Count of Ostervant by Philip, and decorated with the Order of the Golden Fleece.

Thus was acquired by Philip Duke of Burgundy, and by him transmitted to his descendants, the Province of Hainault, and with it the Provinces of Holland, Zealand, and Friesland. This Prince has been distinguished by the title of Philip the Good, an appeilation to which he is in some degree entitled from the general mildmess of his government; but impar

tial History will always reproach him with the wrongs done to the Countess of Hainault; and his unkind and ungenerous treatment of this Princess, his kinswoman; and the unfair advantage that he drew from her errors in conduct, errors that merit great indulgence, imprint a deep and indelible stain on his memory. Jacoba, who, in place of all her pompous titles, now bore only the title of Countess of Ostervant, retired into Zealand, to taste the pleasures of a comparatively humble station, in the society of a husband who had given her such unequivocal proofs of entire affection, and whose love she rewarded with the possession of her whole heart. Jacoba died at the age of 36, and was buried in the tomb of the Counts of Holland. During the last and hap piest period of her life Jacoba used to amuse herself in framing vases of earthen ware. Many of these were afterwards found in the lake that surrounded the Castle where she resided, and were long religiously kept by the people of the country, who named them the Vases of the Lady Jacoba of Hainault,

In my next letter, I purpose concluding my observations on the Province of Hainault; and hope also, to introduce your Readers to Brussels and Waterloo.

CLERICUS LEICESTRIENSIS. (To be continued.)

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 9.

TEN years are now elapsed since

the Proprietors of the Continuation of Granger's Biography threw out a hint that it might be expedient to incorporate both Works in a new edition, to be enriched with the ac counts of Portraits either wholly omitted in those works, or engraved since their publication.

The four 8vo volumes of Granger are, I believe, now out of print, so that it should seem to be the time to carry into effect an enlarged edition. If the Proprietors make known their intentions, there can be no doubt but corrections and new matter would be chearfully contributed. It is a pity that the elegant amusement of collecting Portraits should be damped from the want of assistance, not only in their chronological arrangement, but in reference to their connexion with the History of the Country.

Yours, &c. STEVEN MUSGROVE.

Mr.