rest, the village of Waterloo opened to the view; a straggling hamlet, with a neat church, in the centre. On entering the church an interesting sight presented itself-namely, monuments consecrated to the memory of several British Officers who had gloriously fallen in the cause of their Country, on the 18th of June, 1815; which will be hailed as a proud day for England, as long as feelings of patriotism and independence remain warm in the hearts of Britons. On one of the monuments appeared the following inscription: "Dulce et decorum est pro putriâ mori!" O Nature, with what exquisite chords dost thou bind our hearts, making them thrill with ineffable emotions of sympathy and grief, tenderness and love! Why was my heart full on this occasion? and why did I give vent to my feelings in sighs and tears? I reclined against the monument-I looked at the inscription and thought of Britain. Every association of ideas, public and private, connected with that word, rushed upon my mind; and after a pause of some moments, 1 turned round to a lady of our party, who stood before the monument dissolved in tears, and repeated the following lines from Dr. Young: "Britain! that word pronounc'd is an alarm, [veins ; It warms the blood, tho' frozen in our Awakes the soul, and sends her to the field Enamour'd of the glorious face of War. Britain! there's noble magic in the sound! With my heart warmed by such feelings, I took my leave of the Church of Waterloo. And here I take my leave of your Readers until next month, when I hope to resume the interesting subject of Waterloo. CLERICUS LEICESTRIENSIS. 1 taking as satisfactory as possible, in regard to a notice of errors and omissions in the different volumes. A list of the former (and no topographical work, on a scale so comprehensive, was ever quite exempt from inaccuracies) will be appended to most, and, it is hoped, to the whole of the Counties. Concerning omissions, it may be desirable to inform the Subscribers, as it may influence them in binding the Work, that an account of the parish of Barnes, in the county of Surrey, which parish was inadvertently overlooked by the Editor of that portion of the "Beauties," will be inserted in the Appendix to the Introduction. The Proprietors will likewise have, on this occasion, an opportunity of rendering a grateful and necessary of fering to the friends of the undertaking a collective enumeration of the gentlemen who have contributed local information concerning the Counties in which they reside, or respecting which they have taken a particular interest. J. NORRIS BREWER. • Mr. URBAN, April 14. IN your Magazine for June last, a Correspondent states, that the late Mr. Mason left all his papers and manuscripts" to the Bishop of London" (Dr. B. Porteus), "the Rev. J. Dixon, and Wm. Burgh, esq. of York, with directions that they should publish such of them as they thought proper, together with a complete edition of his Works." This statement, with regard to the Bp. of London, is erroneous; and consequently your Correspondent's supposition, that the delay of publication was occasioned by the Bishop's objec tion to the admission of Mr. Mason's satirical works, is totally without foundation. That the Literary Publick may have authentic information upon a subject with which even many of the personal friends of Mr. Mason seem to be unacquainted, I send you a copy of that clause in his Will, which provides for the disposal of his unpublished Writings. "Whereas I shall probably leave several Manuscripts in prose and verse without written directions concerning their publication; my will and desire is, that Win. Burgh, esq. LL. D. now residing in York, together with my aforesaid three trustees (the Rev. C. Alderson, Rector of Eckington in Derbyshire, the the Rev. J. Dixon, Rector of Boughton in Northamptonshire, and Rich. Stonhewer, esq. Auditor of the Excise), should either jointly or severally revise the same; and that, after such careful revision, such Manuscript and other unpublished Works should be selected, which any three, or a majority of them, including the same Wm. Burgh, esq. shall think proper for publication. And toy will further is, that these then posthumous pieces shall be printed, together with my Writings already printed with iny name, in one complete edition; and also, that the said Wm. Burgh, esq. shall attend to the correct printing of the same. And respecting this complete edition of my Works, my will is, that my executor hereafter mentioned (Rev. C. Alderson) shall sell and dispose of the same to some reputable bookseller or booksellers, and the property in them which will legally devolve to him at my decease; and the net sum which he shall receive for the same (after all his expences are deducted) shall be given by him, as a voluntary donation, to the York County Infirmary." The papers were placed in Dr. Burgh's possession soon after Mr. Mason's death, in 1797, and there remained till bis decease, in Dec. 1808, but without any progress being made by him towards their selection and arrangement for the press; a circumstance more to be regretted, as, from his abilities, sound judgment, and correct opinions, we had reason to expect, not only a more complete edition of the Author's Works, but likewise some account of his Life, written in such a manner as might have given an acceptable addition to that most useful and engaging species of writing, Professional and Literary Biography. At this time Mr. Alderson and Mr. Dixon, who were the only surviving trustees, being from extreme ill health incapable of taking any very active part in the publication, consulted with several persons whose judgment they respected; and in 1811 reprinted the Works of Mr. Mason already published, with some few additions from the papers in their possession. As these papers are not yet destroyed, and as several valuable letters are preserved by many of his friends, there is no reason to give up the hope of having his wishes complied with, and of publishing a work which might answer his charitable purposes, at the same time that they extended the fame and character of the Author. In a letter to one of his friends he certainly expressed a wish that his correspondence should not be published; but it may be worth while to consider what weight an accidental expression in a familiar letter might have against his general opinion, as acknowledged by his friends, and illustrated by his Life of Gray, who was an Author at least as fastidious as Mason, and of whose credit he was equally careful. Neither was any injunction of the sort mentioned to Dr. Burgh, in whose judgment he fully relied, and to which he entirely resigned his character. Mr. URBAN, Евон. March 22. Tappears from various Volumes of your Magazine, that the Literary World has for many years endeavoured to discover the Author of Junius's Letters; and many suppositions have been published on the subject of inquiry. Has not Sir William Temple somewhere written, "We see a little, conjecture much; and so jump on to a conclusion?" A recent publication, bearing the title of "The Author of Junius's Letters identified," inclines me to communicate what follows. The late Dowager Lady of a Nobleman who had been elevated from the Bar to the Peerage, in a conver sation with an intimate friend of hers, said, that, after Lord's death, at their house in town, on some shelves, concealed within a wainscot, were found many copies, in sheets, of Junius's Letters; and with them several billets from the King, in his own hand-writing-all of them desiring Lord to be with him; bis Majesty naming the time of each interview with the utmost exactness-H. C. M. even to the minute." S. B. says, "It is a fact well-ascertained, that the great DUKE of MarleoROUGH received part, at least, of his education at St. Paul's School; but the time of his admission, and continuance there, is uncertain, the records of the School having been destroyed in the fire of 1666. Whatever in any degree contributed to form the mind of such a man, he observes, cannot but be interesting to the publick; and he therefore solicits information from any Correspondent who may have it in his power, respecting that or any other circumstance of the Duke's early life." Mr. been involved in uncertainty, must be observed by every Reader of the Historic page. The same difficulty occurs, at a comparatively modern pe riod, with regard to the birth-place of John Knox; some Writers assert ing that he was born at Haddington, N. B.; and others at a village a few miles from it, named Gifford. The House of which I now send a sketch (Plate I.) is situate in Gifford gate, Haddington (a kind of suburb to that town), and shewn by the inhabitants as the dwelling, where, according to tradition, that celebrated Reformer first drew breath: and the union of both names (Gif ford and Haddington) may possibly account for the confusion prevailing amongst his biographers. The last of that class (Dr. M'Crie) is however inclined to give a preference to the village of Gifford, though, at the same time, he candidly refers his Readers to the opinions of his predecessors, pro and con, in Appendix A. to the first volume of his Memoirs. M. R. Thy the late William Shenstone, HE following Epitaph, written esq. of the Leasowes, near Halesowen, in the county of Salop, is extracted from a tombstone in the church-yard of that place. I know not whether it has ever been noticed by any of your Correspondents; if not, I shall be pleased, as well as many other of your Readers, to see it recorded in your Magazine. The young lady to whom it applies was highly esteemed by the Writer of her Epitaph. She met her death by a fall from her horse, on a ride between Halesowen and Dudley, although the Epitaph has not any allusion to that fact. L. "Here lyeth interred the body of Ann, the loving and beloved daughter of Samuel and Mary Powell of this town: she departed this life on the 29th of July 1744, in the 20th year of ber age. Here-here she lies a budding rose GENT. MAG. April, 1817. AS many of the pages of your cupied with amusing and interesting accounts of Tours made through the Northern Departments of France and the Netherlands, permit me, who have during the last Autumn made a journey through the same district, to add by way of Appendix, a few agricultural observations, which I really think may be useful and beneficial to my own country.-The general cultivation in those countries, of three articles of which we know nothing as matters of husbandry, must forcibly strike every itinerant-1 allude to the Poppy; Tobacco; and the Haricot or French Bean.-The first of these is cultivated on a very large scale, not with a view to any soporific or narcotic qualities which the plant may contain, and which reside in the capsule or seed-vessel alone, and in no other part in the smallest degree, but on account of the sweet and pleasant oil which abounds in the see.. The Poppy was first introabout the year 1808, in consequence duced into France from Germany of the injuries, amounting almost to a general destruction, received by the olive-trees in the Southern Provinces from the severity of the preceding winter. The first planters having been amply recompensed for their expences and labour by the price at which the Poppy oil was sold, others were induced to follow their example; insomuch that, next to wheat, the Poppy in certain extensive districts is the most general article of agricultural pursuit. The flavour of this oil is so sweet and delicate, that it is frequently substituted for that of the olive; and I have been credibly informed that the nature, qualities, taste, and flavour, of these two oils are so similar, and so much resemble each other, that this substitution is scarcely considered to be fraud in commerce.-It is extracted by iron cylinders, which crush the seed, and which are put into action by small windmills, of which, in the immediate mediate vicinity of Lille only there are more than two hundred. The pulp, or residuum, is made into oilcake for the fattening of cattle, which is for that purpose of a very superior quality, and the haulme, which is more substantial than straw, is used by the bakers for heating their ovens. The capsule is sometimes sold to the chemists, and from them a decoction is made similar to what is too frequently made by the cottagers of this country under the name of sleeping water. I am aware that true opium is an exudation of, or rather an extraction from, the seed-vessel of the Poppy in its green and unripe state; but it has been suggested that the ingenuity of modern chemists might render these dried capsules serviceable for medicinal purposes in a degree beyond what modern practice has yet attained to. As the soil of the bog marshes of England is very similar to that of Flanders, and as we have large tracts of upland equally rich and fertile with the Poppy-grounds of France, it is very desirable that the experiment should be here made of the agricultural tillage of this plant, and there can be but little doubt of the successful result, since no peculiar art, dexterity, or ingenuity appear to be requisite. The varieties of the Poppy are infinite; but the Pink kind, called Oeillel (the French word for the Pink) only is sowed in the field. A person might easily convince himself of the oiliness, and of the delicacy of the flavour, by emptying a capsule of its seed into his hand, and then putting it into his mouth; the taste he would in the first instance find very much like to that of the filbert.If this Letter should attract the notice of the Agriculturists, as very much wish that it may, and if I should perceive that there is an inclination for the culture of this valuable grain in this country*, I would give farther information as to the management, the harvesting, and the commerce of it, on a future occasion; which I now only abstain from, from a reluctance to the overfilling unnecessarily of your pages. Large quantities of TOBACCO are grown in France and Flanders. In the Agricultural Report of the Com t *It is largely cultivated in Leicestershire. See vol. LXXXVI. ii. p. 535. mittee of the House of Commons As to the HARICOT, it may be observed, that it constitutes a material article of the husbandry of France.— The Dwarf French-bean is in very general cultivation; and it is trusted as a Winter vegetable, in the same manner as we rely on our Potatoes, which root they are only just begin ning to make use of nor do I wish indeed to see the Haricot substituted for the Potatoe, but I would recommend it as making a variety at a season in which vegetables do not abound. In fact, we may be said to be totally unacquainted with this pulse as a winter dish. I will close this long letter, with observing, that the French may be considered in most respects to be inferior to ourselves in agricultural science. Little or no attention has been paid to the breeding of cattle or sheep; they are as chance may have directed. All their farming utensils are clumsy and ugly; but they have the eminent merit of making use of, and of rendering serviceable, every nook and strip of land. Any portion that may be too small for the operations of the plough, is subdued by the spade; and their general use of storehouses is deserving of the attention of the farmer and of the carrier. A team of Horses, whole and entire, will accomplish infinitely more of direct bard labour than an equal number of Geldings of the same breed and lineage. There is a general opinion prevalent through the country, that the alterations which have taken place in regard to the feudal or manorial and the tithing systems, have been highly serviceable to the agriculture of France. But every well-judging person must evidently see that no adequate provision has yet been made for the Clergy, who, together with their churches and parsonage-houses, are in a wretched and deplorable state. In fact, the farmers generally said, that, under the antient regime, it was not the quantum of the provision for the Parochial Clergy of which they complained, for they had not too much; but that their objections were merely to the mode, namely, by tithes. If these observations on the state of the Agriculture of our Neighbours should be acceptable, I may perhaps soon trouble you with another letter on the same topick. Yours, &c. COMPENDIUM OF COUNTY HISTORY. ESSEX. SITUATION AND EXTENT. C. Boundaries. North, Suffolk and Cambridge. East, German Ocean. South, The Thames. West, Middlesex and Hertford, Greatest length 60, greatest breadth 50, circumference 225, square 1525 miles. Province, Canterbury. Diocese, London. Circuit, Home. ANTIENT STATE AND REMAINS. British Inhabitants. Trinobantes. Roman Province. Flavia Cæsariensis. Stations. Camalodunum, (where the Emperor Claudius, surnamed Britannicus, established a colony of the 2d, 9th, and 14th legions,) Colchester or Malden. Cæsaromagus, Great Dunmow or Writtle. Canonium, Canewdon. Ad Ansam, Toleshunt Knights. Iciani, Great Chesterford. Saxon Heptarchy. Essex. Antiquities. Colchester tesselated Pavement, Castle, St. John's Abbey, St. Botolph's Priory, and Moot-house. Low, Pleshy Castle, and Coggeshall-abbey Bridges. Barking, Bileigh, Stratford Langton, Tilting and Waltham Abbeys. Bycknacre, Latton, Lees, and St. Osyth's Priories. Greensted near Ongar, Little Maplestead, Rainham, Saffron Walden, Thaxted (spire 181 feet) and Thundersley Churches. Nether-hall, Layer Marney-hall, Eastbury-house. Camalodunum is said by our ancient English Historians to have been the birth-place of Constantine the Great, whose mother Helena is also said to have been daughter to Coel, a British prince; but these assertions are discredited by modern Authors. In it was erected a Temple to the memory of the Emperor Claudius, who was worshiped as the Tutelar Deity of the place. St. John's at Colchester was a Mitred Abbey, founded in 1096, by Eudo, sewer or steward to William the Conqueror, who also founded the Castle |