1824.] Hospital of St. Nicholas, Richmond, Yorkshire.' 66 ministers to the best parts of our nature: "the city does not," said Augustus, "consist of buildings and porticoes.' What would become of men if they were so few as the doctrine in question would reduce them to? no longer social life, and blessings of humanity, would ensue, but a howling. wilderness would at last close the scene! Would any parent in the midst of his numerous offspring, exchange the place on which any one of them fills up the circle, for the blank which his absence could produce? would he yield the heavenly spark of parental love, which filled his bosom at their birth, for the cold calculation of what their numbers require for subsistence? If he were rich he rejoiced in the bounteous gift from Providence; and if he were poor, he trusted in that superintending wisdom which constantly supplies by industry the wants of all whom he sends upon the earth! "Poverty," says Ad. Smith, though it no doubt discourages, does not always prevent marriages; it seems even to be favourable to generation; barrenness is very rare among those of inferior station. It is also said to be unfavourable to the rearing of children: the tender plant is produced, but in a cold soil, and so severe a climate, it soon withers and dies." (Smith, W. Na, 1.120.) I have had much occasion for many years past to see the contrary of this position, and any one may prove it by an hour's resort to the cottages round London, and to the courts and allies in the central parts of this metropolis. The workmen, and lahourers to workmen, in the various handicrafts which employ them, (except in those that are dangerous to life, or by their excess of exertion produce ruptures,) are as long lived, and if they live moderately, are as capable of the conjugal affections, as any of their superiors of fortune; they never suffer half so much fro.n labour and spare diet, as they do from want of employment, and from the irregularities of dram-drinking, and of an ale-house life. The greater portion of physical strength and vigour of constitution, which is given to those of the labouring class of society, is most bene, ficently bestowed to enable them to endure more, and to carry on to better effect, the necessary purposes of social life; were they sophisticated by the habiGENT. MAG. February, 1824. 113 tual indulgences of the opulent and higher stations, this nation would in one year be reduced to an easy prey; their increased vigour reduces their wants, and supplies, in a very considerable degree, the deficiency of fortune. If there be any truth in these reflections, it will be easy to judge of the magnitude of the crime by which sinister methods have been adopted to insult the goodness of God, by frustrating the physical effect of cohabitation, by abortions, by causing or endeavouring to produce miscarriages, by providing for infants at their birth, by deserting and exposing young children, and by infanticide, in its various branches; all these must assuredly be esteemed as murder, and forfeit the promise of eternal life! A. H. I Mr. URBAN, Caston, near Walton, Norfolk, Feb. 10. FORWARD you the following account of the Hospital of St. Nicholas, with the accompanying view (see Plate II.) from Mr. Clarkson's History of Richmond, co. York. Every lover of Topography must regret that the County of Richmond has remained so long without a historian. I know of no history of that part except the one published by the late Dr. Whitaker, which, I understand, is far from being either correct or replete with information. The very able manner in which Mr. Clarkson has described the Capital of Richmondshire, leads me to hope that he will one day undertake the history of the County. The field is ample, the materials are abundant; and the two qualifications indispensable to a true topographer, perseverance and enthusiasm, are possessed in a high degree by that gentleman. Yours, &c. RICHMONDIENSIS. HOSPITIUM, OR HOSPITAL OF ST. Where pilgrims oft, and strangers from afar, made, And weary limbs refresh'd, they onward went In the Pipe Roll* of the 18th of * Tanner's Notitia Monastica. shillings, 114 Hospital of St. Nicholas, Richmond, Yorkshire. shillings, the value of five seams of bread corn (summis frumenti), given by Ralph de Glanville to the sick in the Hospital of Richmond, which is supposed to be that near this town. The first founder of it is unknown, but as it was in the patronage of the King, as parcel of the Honour of Richmond, it may very justly be ascribed to the piety of some of the first Earls. Henry IV. in 1399, granted the patronage of the Hospital to Ralph Earl of Westmorland. At his decease in 1446, it was given by Henry VI. to his uncle John, Duke of Bedford *. The Hospital being very much decayed in the buildings, and the revenues so greatly diminished as to be able to maintain only one Chaplain for performing all the various duties belonging to it, Henry VI. granted it in 1448, 26th of his reign, to William Ayscough, one of the Justices of the Bencht, formerly Master of it, who repaired, or rather re-edified and endowed it as a second founder. Also in the augmentation of Divine worship, he founded a certain chantry in the Chapel of the Hospital, and dedicated it to St. Nicholas the Confessor, to be served by one perpetual Chaplain, therein to celebrate mass every day for ever. By the same grant the King gave to him the perpetual advowson and patronage of the Hospital. Nicholas Kirby also, 7th Edw. III. gave an additional pension of three pounds to the same Chaplain, who was bound to say mass daily in the Chapel of St. Edmund, the King, in Richmond, as well as that of St. Nicholas §. In this condition the Hospital continued till the dissolution, and had revenues arising from the gardens, orchards, and arable land in their own possession, to the value of eight pounds a year, besides divers tenements in the Bailiwick of Skeeby of the value of 20s.; of Jolbye 13s. 4d. ; of Newsham 13s. 4d.; of Hudswell 10s.; in Richmond 52s. 8d.; in Catterick, Constable Burton, and Harnby 2s. 8d.; which all together amounted to 137. 12s. a year; yet having to pay a pension of 12s. a year, the price at that time of twelve bushels of * Rot. Claus. 4 Henry VI. m. 11. Mon. vol. II. p. 479. Mon. Ang. II. 479. Dugd. § Pat. P. 2. 7 Ed. III. Pat. 20 Ric. II. p. 2. P. 2. [Feb. corn, to the Anchoress at Richmond, a gift from John Earl of Richmond; and a pension of 31. a year to the Chaplain who celebrated mass daily in the Chapel of St. Nicholas and St. Edmund the King, in Richmond; the rental was reduced to ten pounds only*, when clear of all deductions. It early shared the fate of all the religious houses of small value, and was surrendered on the 26th Hen. VIII. by Richard Baldwin, the then master. In July 1553, the beginning of the reign of Queen Mary, at the restoration of the religious houses, William Berye, LL.D. was instituted to this Chapel of St. Nicholas, on the presentation of the Crown. The second founder was buried with his wife, Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of John Calthrop, Esq. whom he survived many years, in the North aile of Bedale Church, under an alabaster monument, whereon is still remaining this inscription in black letter: "Hic jacet Gulielmus Ayscough†, Miles, unus Justiciariorum Domini Regis de Banco, qui obiit anno Domini MCCCCLVI. cujus anima per misericordiam Domini in pace requiescat. Hic jacet Elizabetha, quæ fuit uxor Gulielmi Ayscough, Militis, unius Justiciariorum Domini Regis de Banco, quæ obiit anno Domini MCCCC. cujus animæ propicietur Deus. Amen. Sis testis, Christe, quod non jacet hic lapis iste, The room which tradition and modern appearance points out as the site of the Chapel, seems to have been built by some of the grantees soon after the dissolution; in all probability by the Wrays, who for many years had been tenants, if not proprietors, of this property before it came into the possession of the Nortons. The porch and entrance into it from the Hospital, on the South side, are very perfect. Over the former is a small room with a fire-place and two narrow windows, one of which looked into the Chapel, the other into the cemetery. This religious edifice is now made use of as a stable, having been covered over and converted to that purpose not many In the Archbishop's certificate it is called the Hospital of St. Nicholas, within the parish church of Richmond, and is there valued at 10l. 13s.-Steevens's Supplement, vol. i. p. 65. + See pedigree of the Ayscoughs, in History of Richmond, 4to ed. pp. 252, 253. years 1824.] Hospital of St. Nicholas, Richmond, Yorkshire. years ago. Through the fine East window, is now made a passage into the hay-loft, up some rude steps on the outside. There are not many remains of the ancient Hospital. The house, with its appurtenances, was granted out by the Crown, and on its site was soon after erected a modern mansion. In all probability, some parts of the ancient edifice were incorporated in the new structure; but they are so very trifling, and so modernized, that they almost escape notice. The house, as it now stands, with its two wings and large square windows, divided by stone mullions, may be considered as almost the only specimen in this neighbourhood of a hall-house built in the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth, or the beginning of that of James, when the Grecian was supplanting the Gothic architecture, in the residences of the middling gentry of that day. The corridor in front, between the two wings, is still very perfect; along the top of which is a gallery with an ornamental parapet of open stone fret work, of singularly delicate workmanship, supported by pillars of the Grecian order. It is divided into five compartments, each having a large quatrefoil in the centre, with lozenges and other tracery. Six urns were placed upon the summit of the parapet, one upon each of the pilasters which divide the compartments; three of them only remaining. The old bell is still in the place. Upon it are engraven, in raised characters, a cross pateè and Deo canta, in Church text letters. The whole inscription is reversed, and the letter t in the second word is omitted. In the inside is remaining part of the old oaken wainscot, divided into compartments, very curiously carved and ornamented, with a profusion of ancient sculpture, exhibiting roses, bunches of grapes, and a variety of foliage. After the marriage of Henry VII. with Elizabeth daughter of Edward IV. it became fashionable for the gentry to decorate their houses with red and white roses, as an expression of loyalty; so that this wainscot, from the roses and other remains of sculpture characteristic of the times, cannot be of a later date than the time of Henry VIII. The handsome stucco, cornices, and ceiling, wrought into compartments, 115 are richly adorned with roses and fleurs-de-lis in the various angles of the mouldings, mixed with other embossed work, now very much mutilated. The gateway is in tolerable repair; the ancient flight of steps leading to it from the road, of easy ascent, was taken away about the year 1798, and used for the coping of the garden-wall in front of the Hospital. From the remains of this old Hospi tal having always been inhabited and fitted up as a farm-house, the edifice has been preserved from ruin. In the year 1813 a piece of board was found over the North window of the large apartment above the hall, on which was engraven an inscription in Roman capitals. The letters were filled up with some black substance like soot, mixed with oil, and coloured over with red paint, to hide them, On scraping it off, the following words appeared very distinct: GLORIA DEO TRIBVENDA NOBIS, NON PIIS OMNIA CEDVNT IN BONVM. About the year 1788, as the then tenant was digging among some old rubbish in the cemetery behind the Chapel, he found a coffin hollowed out of solid stone, six feet long, by one foot nine inches in breadth at the shoulders, and eleven inches deep; the interior dimensions, containing a body so very perfect as to be given to a surgeon for a skeleton. The coffin is now used by the present tenant as a pig trough. Stone coffins began to be disused about the year 1460, so that this body must have lain, in all probability, about 360 years, taking it even at the time when these coffins were laid aside. From the dissolution of hospitals in the 26th Henry VIII. St. Nicholas continued in the hands of the Crown till the time of Elizabeth. This Queen, on the 22d of August, 1585, granted to Theophilus Adams of London, Esq. and Thomas Butler of Westminster, Gentleman, the site of the Hospital, the Chapel of St. Nicholas, and all the possessions lately belonging to them. 1619. The Chapel and Hospital of St. Nicholas, with the possessions belonging to them, then or lately in the occupation of James Gosling, appear to have been granted by James I. by letters patent, in the seventeenth year of 116 Hospital of St. Nicholas, Richmond, Yorkshire. of his reign, to John Buck and others, and afterwards, in the 18th year of the same reign, by them granted to Nicholas Tempest of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gent. and others. 1630. June 3. Settlement of Thomas Wray, Esq. on his second wife Eleanor, sister of Augustine Belson of Leeds, Esq. of lands called St. Nicholas near Richmond. 1646. March 30. Indenture from Sir Nicholas Tempest of Newcastleupon-Tyne, Knt. to Thomas Norton the younger, of Thorpe Perrow, co. York, Gent. and others, of all that Chapel and Hospital of St. Nicholas lately dissolved, and all messuages, lands, tenements, meadows, feedings, pastures and hereditaments whatsoever, late in the tenure or occupation and possession of Sir William Wray, Knt. Thomas Wray, esq. their tenants or undertenants to the said Chapel or Hospital, by any means belonging or appertaining, situate, lying, or being within the liberties of Richmond, or of the said Hospital. The estate in this indenture is thus described. [Here follow the name and size of each field.] In all 195 acres, now or lately in the possession of James Gosling. 1652. Nov. 5. William Smith of Easby, Gent. sold to William Norton of St. Nicholas, all that close called Foxton close, lying between the Western Lease and the river Swale, within the territories of Easby, now the East end of the Low Bank House Ing, divided by a small run of water, issuing from a rock at the far end of the Clink Bank Wood. 1662. Sept. 10. General release from Manger Norton, Esq. to Thomas Wray, Esq. of all claims relative to the sale of St. Nicholas, some time the estate of the said Thomas Wray. In the year 1685, Francis Blackburne, one of the Aldermen of Richmond, purchased of Christopher Norton of St. Nicholas, Esq. all the above mentioned premises, with the exception of the pasture called White Field, and the two closes adjoining, given, it is said, by Manger Norton to his grandson Thomas Yorke, at his christening, in whose family it now remains. Francis Blackburne, the son, on the 5th of May, 1705, purchased of Tho Norton's release refers to Wray's having exonerated the estate from all bonds, judgments, &c. [Feb. mas Nichols of Hartforth, yeoman, all that parcel of ground adjoining, upon a close called the Clinke Bank, belonging to the said Mr. Blackburne on the East, one other close belonging to the Rev. Matthew Hutchinson on the West, the Queen's highway on the North, and upon some waste ground called Clarke Green on the South, containing about one acre and a half. In the year 1813 the Rev. Francis Blackburne, great-grandson of the first purchaser of that name, sold to Lord Dundas of Aske, the sites of the Hospital and Chapel, with all the premises in his possession, belonging to the said Hospital of St. Nicholas. When these premises came into the possession of Lord Dundas, he ordered them to be put into complete repair, due regard being paid to the propriety of the parts restored, and their conformity with the style of the old building. For this purpose he sent for an ingenious architect (Bonomi) from Darham, who took models of all the different mouldings and embossed work of the ceiling; so that wherever any of them had been destroyed by time, or wanted repairing, they might be supplied from casts, taken either from the original or similar parts. Before these plans were carried into execution, his Lordshipt gave this property to his grandson, the Hon. Thomas Dundas. Mr. URBAN, Feb. 6. N Na recent peregrination, I happened to make a short stay at a very considerable and fashionable town. On account of the augmenting population, new Churches and Chapels were building, the prospective occupancy of which had occasioned a considerable perturbation among the inhabitants. It was stated that a right of presentation to these new Churches had been purchased by a Society, acting under the immediate directions of a gentleman of Cambridge, named Simeon, who nominated the respective Clergymen. This gentleman is known to profess what are called Evangelical principles; and the inhabitants are given to understand, that no orthodox Clergyman will be permitted to preach in the town. The consequence has been, that the Parish Churches of the 1820. + Thomas, Lord Dundas, died June 14, neighbouring |