Devereux-ct. Temple, I house damaged. Grafton-street, Bond-st. Ihouse damaged. Holborn, 3 houses burnt. Lambeth-marsh, 1 house burnt, 1 house Market street, Oxford-st. shop burnt. Poplar, 8 houses burnt, 1 life lost. Stock Exchange (Old), 2 houses burnt. Whitechapel-road, 1 house burnt, 2 da- Brunswick-square, 1 I shall be obliged by any alterations or corrections. This list is perfectly new, and, I fear, not accurate. I consider, the damage done in town and country by fire, in 1816, amounts to between 3 and 400,000. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, A PALATINUS. Dec. 12. SHORT time ago there was, in oue of the public prints, a virulent letter, in which the Writer, subscribing himself "H. Bathurst," said the King was One of the Three Estates of the Realm. With the politics of this Reverend Divine I have no concern; but a Clergyman, an Archdeacon, ought to have known that the King is not One of the Three Estates in our excellent Constitution; but that there is in the Book of Common Prayer "A Form of Prayer with Thanksgiving for the happy deliverrance of King James the First, and the Three Estates of England, from the most traiterous massacre," intended against them by those whom some in these days are anxious to invest with power. God save "the King and the Three Estates," the Lords Siritual and Temporal and Commons of the United Kingdom in Parliament assembled, is the sincere prayer of Yours, &c. R. C. HE "Hints respecting Briefs," by the worthy and intelligent Vicar of Knapton, p. 399, deserve and require consideration. He suggests, very properly, that the Briefs should be sent post-free to the Minister of every parish in the Kingdom." But how are the necessary directions to be attained? for at present, I presume, they are not known, nor easily procurableby one Churchwarden, nor probably by one Rector,in the11,000 placestowhich it is said Briefs are sent. Should the necessary documents be deposited in the Post-office in certain districts? or, as I suppose is the case at present, should the requisite number for each Diocese be transmitted to the Regis trar of the Diocese, to be by him delivered at the half-yearly visitations, or forwarded, by post to the several parishes of that Diocese ? In this case it should be known how many are requisite for each Diocese (as 177 for Landaff, 1255 for Lincoln, &c.), according to the number of parishes. Again, instead of the Churchwarden verifying on oath “the sum collected in his respective parish," would not the signature of the Minister and Churchwardens, as at present, be a sufficient voucher? These and other difficulties in the plan might, I have no doubt, be easily obviated, should Parliament, in their wis dom, and among other weighty matters, find leisure to take this not unimportant subject into their serious deliberation. It is said, p. 213, that the late "Dr. Eveleigh presented a Portrait" of the learned Joseph Sanford "to Exeter College." Yet another Correspondent, p. 388, b. well acquainted, as I take it, with Exeter College, says, he knows of "no regular portrait of him." How is this? Dr. Eveleigh, I well remember, had a remarkable painting in his study; but whether he called it a portrait of the memorable Veteran of Balliol, or of some other Sanford very like him, I am not certain. Some of your Oxford friends can inform us. 104. b. I remember to have seen, perhaps five and thirty years ago, a curious account of au Archdeacon of Richmond travelling with, I think, 40 or 50 attendants and retainers in his train. If" Richmondiensis" is not n possession of the anecdote, I wish I could direct him to it. Perhaps it was in Madox, or in Rymer's Foedera. R.(. Mr. ACCORDING to promise (Part t p. 424.) you may now submit the remaining lines of the Palace of Whitehall in its Restored state; as it appeared in 1815; and as it now appears, 1816. Restored. Battlements and spires to turrets, which remained in Charles II's reign, bere restored: the mullions and tracery to windows are our own suggestion, upon the general style thereof in the Tudor æra, As it appeared in 1815. We witnessed the demolition, about forty years ago, of spires to turrets. The three tiers of windows inserted after the filling-up the great ones; as well as right-hand doorway, with Crown and initial C. R. iu Charles II's reign. Suppose the battlements taken down, general cornice cut away, and parapet set up not long afterwards. Lefthand doorway lately done on the Tudor principle. As it appeared in 1816. All the remaining mouldings cut away; five splays to buttresses introduced in lieu of two; whimsical tri-formed pedestal for two stacks of chimneys set. upon parapet; and the entire face of turrets, parapet, and grounds to upper stories, masked over with a three or four inch thick brick-work; for what purpose it is difficult to say, as the upright (already noted) was in the most pleasing state of repair, as is still to be found in the basementstory, that being left untouched. Unaccountable trifling, to give the business no other name-still, if opinion must be dragged forth, it is to render our Antiquities vile and contemptible! AN ARCHITECT. Mr. URBAN, Dec. 11. AVING lately been induced to Priories, and of the revenues with which they were endowed, I have very unexpectedly found the subject one of considerable difficulty; and I have also been surprised at the very meagre and scanty information to be found in most of the authors where such information might reasonably have been looked for. My inquiry was originally suggested by my having an interest in the quondam revenues of one particular Priory;but the question in its general accepGENT. MAG. December, 1816. tation is one of considerable historical and antiquarian interest, independently of the reference it bears to the private property of many individuals besides myself. This In the Preface to Tanner's Notitia, I find the following Historical Notices. "Edward 1. seized all the Alien Priories during his wars with France, and removed the Alien Monks 20 miles from the coast. See Prynne's Records, III. p. 628.”—This sent me to Ruff'head's Statutes; where I found, 35 Edw. I. Stat. 1. 1307. Statutum de Apportis Religiosorum," Statute is against tallages and impositions set by Priors Aliens, and enacts that no revenues of any kind shall be sent to superiors of Alien Priories beyond the sea, by merchants or others, either secretly or openly, by any device or means, &c. Also, that the com mon Seal of Alien Priories shall not remain in the custody of the Abbot or Prior only, as formerly; but in that of the Abbot or Prior, and four of the most worthy and discreet men of the Convent. But Abbots and Priors Aliens may visit the Monasteries in this kingdom, subject to them, in those things only that belong to regular observation, and the discipline of their order. Edward II. Statutum de Terris Templariorum, Stat. 3. 17, Edw. II. A. 1324. Now as the Templars were suppressed in 1312; and as they have, confessedly, little to do with the Alien Priories; I only mention this Statute concerning their lands to observe that none of their spiritual possessions seem to have been temporalized. Their lands indeed, though chiefly given to the Hospitallers, were in some instances granted to various Noblemen. "It seemed good to the King, the Nobility, and others, assem for of their souls and the discharge of their consciences, to grant that the aforesaid lands, &c. according to the wills of the givers, shall be assigned and delivered to other men of most holy religion, &c." But what I am chiefly concerned to notice is, that the Clergy seem to have recovered the tithes of such of the lands of the Templars as came into Lay hands, as a matter of course. (Vide Pat. Ed. III. p. 2. m. 17.)- I would therefore ask your learned Correspondents, if it is not likely, likely, by parity of reason, that the same was done afterwards in the case of the Alien Priories?-particularly as the anomaly of Lay tithes, to the best of my observation, was unknown before the general dissolution by Henry VIII. But to proceed: 25 Edward III. Stat. 6. ao 1350. Statute of Provisions. This Statute sets forth, that the Pope was accustomed to bestow spiritual benefices on Aliens not resident in England, and the inconveniencies that arose therefrom and it enacts that such appointments shall no longer be valid : that patrons and founders, and their heirs, shall have the presentation to such benefices when void-and that where the Pope maketh provision to a dignity, the King shall present. Penalties are also enacted against such as, by Provisions from Rome, shall disturb such presentments as others ought to make. This Statute is frequently referred to on the subject of the Alien Priories: but I cannot see that it relates to them at all. Tanner refers to Rymer, vol. II. p. 778, and to Dugd. Baron vol. II. p. 74; but I have not these works within my reach, in a country village, Perhaps some of your friends who enjoy that advantage would furnish the extracts which bear on our inquiry. ? Ric. II. cap. 3. ao 1379. Against taking benefices of an Alien, or conveying money to him.-The preamble of this Statute is very similar to 25 Edw. III. which it confirms. It has, however, very little to do with Alien Priories, although quoted frequently as applicable to them. Tanner says, that Richard sequestered the Alien Priories during the war only, and that the Head Houses abroad had the King's licence to sell their lands to Religious houses here, Mon. Ang. I. 943. 966; and sometimes to sell them to particular persons for the endowment of Houses denizen. Appropriations, however, even after the Statute of Mortmain, continued to be granted for the support of Religious Houses, as they were held not to be Lay fees. Richard appears also to have given some of the Alien Priories, which had been seized by his grandfather, to sundry Monasteries and Colleges. A list of these Alien Priories is a desideratum. Henry IV. according to Tanner, was at first a favourer of the Alien Pri ories. He restored ao1. all the Conventual Alien Priories (or such as had the choice of their own Prior); only reserving in time of war, to the Crown, what they paid in time of peace to the foreign Houses: for which he quotes Rymer, vol. VIII. p. 101. Now I find nothing like this in Ruffhead. But in a 4. cap. 12. he confirms 15 Ric. II.*; annuls all appropriations since made; and enacts that from henceforth, in every church appropriated, the minister appointed shall be a secular, and not a religious man. These are the very words of the Statute, however oddly, they may sound in our ears at the present day. A° 9 Hen. IV. cap. 8. is sometimes quoted on this subject, but has no reference to it whatever. 1 Hen. V. cap. 7. confirms 13 Ric. II. (should not this be ao 2 Ric. II?) restraining Aliens taking Benefices in England: and sets forth that whereas it was ordered by that Act, that "whenever any Priories Aliens Conventual, or any other Benefice or of fice, should become void by the ces sion or decease of the Priors and other occupiers during the war, honest Englishmen should be placed in their stead, to perform Divine Service, -the said Statute should be con firmed, &c." Now how do these provisions agree with what Tanner tells us took place in the Parliament held at Leicester the following year: viz. that all the Alien Priories were given to the King, with their lands and revenues, except such as were Conventual? Of this Statute a 2 Hen. V. I find nothing in Ruffhead; but I suppose there is such an one extant: as it is ascertained that the Alien Priories were dissolved about this time: Eton and King's College, Cambridge, having been chiefly endowed out of their spoils by Henry VI. The questions that seem then to remain for decision, are these: When were these Alien Priories, in fact, dissolved? Were they dissolved at once; or the Non-conventuals first, and afterwards the Conventuals?-What became of the tithes which had been appropri ated to them? Did they revert to the Churches from which they had been taken?-as in the case of the Templars: --or Did they pass into Lay hands, in |