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Mr. URBAN, May 5. HE attention of the London Antiquary has been in a particular manner directed of late to old London Wall, in consequence of the demolition of so large a portion of what remained of it, in making the alterations for the new street on the site of the late Bethlem Hospital.

By way of seconding the judicious remarks of your Correspondent G. O. P. R. in p. 196, I beg you to insert the accompanying view (see Pl. II.) of the most perfect specimen now existing of this much-celebrated military defence.

"Very few places in London," says Mr. Malcolm, in bis Londinium Redivivam, "afford a scene equal to the Church-yard of St. Giles:the City Wall, overgrown with grass,, tinged with various-coloured damps; some stones mouldered to dust, leaving chasms between their more durable neighbours; the circular bastion at the angle, from whence it ranges East and West on one side, and North and South on the other: the antient Hall of the Barber Surgeons projecting across its foundation to the South; Lamb's Chapel to the North; the tower and the Church; the tombs of the wealthy, and the humble heaps of the poor,-all combine to recall past ages before us, and occasion many melancholy yet grateful reflections."

Mr. J. T. Smith, in his "Antient To pography of London," has given four interesting and excellent views of different portions of these venerable Walls. 1. Inside of the Watch-Tower discovered near Ludgate-hill, May 1, 1792; 2. Parts of London Wall and Bethlem Hospital (lately destroyed); 3. S. W. view of Bethlem Hospital and London Wall (also now destroyed); and 4. A Fragment of London Wall as it stood in the Church-yard of St. Giles, Cripplegate, in 1793. This is a different portion of the Wall to that represented in the annexed Plate; but Mr. J. T. Smith had previously engraved, as an Illustration of Pen want's London, a view of this same Round Tower. In describing the Second Plate, above enumerated, Mr. Smith has the following judicious statement of the materials and measurement of that portion of the Wall which has recently been removed:

"The opposite Plate represents short specimens of that great portion of London GENT. MAG. May, 1817.

Wall, which extends 714 feet Westward from the ground which faces the North end of Winchester-street, nearly to the spot where Moorgate stood. The chief part of this great length of wall consists of three distinct characters. First, an inside one of chalk and flint, cased on either side with a rubble one of ragstore, strongly cemented together. This Wall is in some places about 8 feet thick, and eight feet high from the present pavement; but it must originally have commenced at a depth considerably below, as may be seen whenever the ground is opened. The third character is a tesselated, or partly-glazed brick wall, surmounted with battlements coped with stone. It is erected upon 2 feet 3 inches of the cased Wall, on that side next to the City Ditch, and is in height, from the top of the cased feet; the space between the battlements Wall to the top of the stone coping, 8 is 2 feet 6 inches. Upon clearing the dirt away from some parts of the top of the cased Wall, I found that it had been covered with two layers of brick of an unusual size, measuring 1 foot 1 inch and a half, by 5 inches and a quarter, and only two inches and a half thick. extremely close and hard;-they were These bricks were of a rich deep red, possibly some of those mentioned by Stowe as having been made in Moorfields. There are, it must be observed, in many parts of the stone casing, pieces of bright red larger bricks, but not so thick as those just mentioned; and these are often looked upon by many persens as Roman.”

from Mr. Smith's Work, it would be After having quoted so largely injustice not to notice his very inpital; to which I with confidence reteresting Account of Bethlem Hosfer your Readers.

Mr. URBAN,

N. R. S.

May 12.

MC having been said of late

respecting a practice among read the Psalms and Lesson appointed many of our Clergy, of omitting to perusal of the following extract from to be used in the Burial Service; a John Shepherd, entitled, "A Critical a recent publication of the late Rev. of Common Prayer," may be satisand Practical Elucidation of the Book factory to many of your Readers. To me, I must confess, it appears, as well as to Mr. Shepherd, that the duty upon the Clergyman to read the same is indispensable; and that an

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"After meeting the corpse, the Priest is 'to go before it, either into the church, or to the grave.' These words certainly authorize the Clergyman to go towards the grave, while he repeats the sentences, and then to perform that part of the office which is appointed to be said when they come to the grave.' But the question is, whether this Rubric leaves the Minister at liberty to refuse going into the church at all? It is the opinion of some, that the Minister is invested with a discretionary power of omitting, whenever he pleases, those parts of the office which are to be read in the church. To this opinion I cannot

subscribe.

"It must be admitted, I think, that the Clergyman is required to perform the entire office, since there is not the least intimation that any part of it may be dispensed with. To omit the Psalms and the Lesson, is to omit more than one half of the whole, which it is not pretended a Minister may do in any other instance. Hence I conclude, that the Minister may go first to the grave, and then to the church, or vice versa, as his discretion may direct; but he must perform the service to be used at the grave, and that to be said in the church, at the places where they are respectively appointed to be performed. That is, the Psalms and the Lesson may be said either before or after the burial of the corpse,' as it is expressly said in Edward's first book.

"To those who still think the Psalm and Lesson may be omitted, I have further to observe, that to omit the service at the grave is as reasonable in itself, and exactly as agreeable to the regulations of our Church. Whatever argument can be brought to prove that the Minister may refuse to read the Service appointed to be used in the church, will equally prove that he may refuse to perform what he is directed to perform at the grave.

"Again, though it is not expressly stated in the Rubric, yet it is understood by the Church, and ought to be explained to the people, that the prayers and exhortations in the Burial Service are not for the benefit of the dead, but for the instruction and comfort of the living. Whether the Psalms and Lesson be read before or after the interment; whether the corpse is or is not taken into the church, are, in their own na

ture, matters of indifference; and so the Church has left them. Still the Psalms and the Lesson are so exceedingly proper for the occasion, that I presume few Clergymen would be disposed to omit them, even if they had, what in this instance they have not, a discretionary power.

"When the Rubrics were formed, there was a reason for the Minister's going to the grave in the first place, which does not exist at present. It was then in some places not uncommon to bury the poorer people without a coffin, the body being wrapped in some thick coarse cloathing. On such occasions there might be an obvious reason for not admitting the corpse to be brought into the church. And even at present, where the deceased may have died of the small pox, a malignant fever, or any other infectious disease, or when the body is putrid or otherwise offensive, the Minister, for the sake of those who attend the funeral, as well as on account of the congregation that may assemble on the same or the following day, would not, I conceive, exercise his discretion improperly, if he should go first to the grave and then into the Church." Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

A. B.

Weston, April 15. HAVE lately received two hand

some subscriptions to the important object of the new Church in the Forest of Dean, by persons who derived their information from seeing the statement in the last volume of the Gentleman's Magazine. I was not aware of its insertion, or should have made you my acknowledgment at an earlier period. I rejoice to say, this grand object is so far accomplished, that the Church is opened; but I have taken a fearful risk on myself, in finishing it at once, before the whole sum was raised: add to which, I must, if it be possible, build the par sonage-house this summer, that I may live on the spot next year. am therefore obliged to use every exertion in my power to raise new supplies. If it were repeated, as an Advertisement, on the cover of your Magazine*, many persons might be induced to give, from seeing what has been done in so short a time.

A full list of all the Subscribers will now be lodged at the different Receiving-Houses. Yours, &c.

HENRY BERKIN.

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Mr. URBAN,

May 10.

HE following critical opinion

natural sagacity wanted, to come to wise moral decision: for it must

The newly published Letters of in many cases be made up, in part,

the late Mrs. Carter to Mrs. Montagu, having been given in a private Let ter to his friend the Editor, appeared so just to the Gentieman to whom it was shewn, that it is at his request, out of respectto the learned, highly endowed, and admirable Authoress, sent for preservation in your pages, to which candour, kindness, and praise, are more acceptable than severity: and where, when the flippant criticisms which feed the petty malignities of the day are forgotten, the calm decisions of the unprejudiced censor will be looked for and found. S. E. B.

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"To the Rev. M.P. at Deal. My dear Friend, Feb. 16.

་་

"I do not alter or abate in my opinion, that Mrs. Carter's Letters are models of epistolary excellence. In style there is all the strength of Johnson, without his pomp. In matter there is all his profundity and comprehension, without his prejudices. Her feelings are rather those of reflection than of impulse: and therefore rather excite esteem and adiniration, than that love and kindness which the more melting pen of Miss Talbot draws forth as by a sort of intuitive charm; or than the flash of intellectual pleasure which is conveyed by the playful and ready wit of Mrs. Montagu.

In most moral questions I should be inclined to take Mrs. Carter as my guide. I have had many moral doubts, which had perplexed me, cleared up by her opinions: nor do I recollect any question she has touched upon, of those numerous nice difficulties in daily life of which the discussion is Continually pressing itself on my mind, without having completely satisfied me by her reasoning.

With this impression on my mind, I told you most sincerely I thought it an imperious duty upon you to give the world the benefit of such precious and enlightening relics.

There is another characteristic ex

cellence, which it strikes me that Mrs. Carter's Letters possess. They seem as it were to emanate from the judicial seat of wisdom: they are not ingenious pleadings, but calm and impartial decisions. Now it seems to me, that, in addition to the powers of reasoning, there is often a deep

of ingredients which escape the grasp of language. This faculty, in addition to great reasoning powers, and great force and clearness of words, Í think Mrs. Carter possessed.

Her industry assisted her with all the light of solid learning; and the calmness of her feelings (unlike this warm and unhappy frame of mine, in whose temperament the most vivid impressions melt away almost as rapidly as they are made) suffered her to retain in their original clearness the treasures with which her memory was stored.

Mrs. Montagu too often took up her pen to think what she should say: Mrs. Carter always to say no more than she thought. Mrs. Montagu's fancy was certainly more brilliant; her imagery more copious; and her combinations more quick, unexpected, and surprising. Mrs. Carter's more deep, more picturesque, and more just.

It is easy to conceive letters more calculated for temporary attraction than those of Mrs. Carter, which open no political discoveries; de l in no piquant satire; betray no private scandal; and gratify no private malice: which open no cabinets; and let not prurient curiosity behind the scenes of public, or private life.

That alone, which deals in such stimulants for the foul and palled appetite of the publick, is likely to be the great and noisy favourite of the day. But there is a slow and gradual fame, which is of a thousand times more value; the fame constituted of the voices of the good and wise, gently rising from wide and dispersed quarters, till they meet in one harmonious acclamation, high above the stir and clamour of grovelers and earthly-minded multitudes, inebriated with mean passions and the conceit of vulgar knowledge!"

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