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Mr. URBAN,

IN

Hoxton, Dec. 3.

N the summer of 1815, I had it in my power to make a short excursion into Buckinghamshire in search of Antiquities; and, as a memorial of the pleasure I enjoyed in that expedition, as well as to gratify those of your Readers who are fond of Antient Sculpture, allow me to send you the following representation of the curiously ornamented Font in Lekhamsted Church, mentioned by Mr. Lysons, in his Magna Britannia, vol. I. p. 489; and to solicit that it may obtain admission into your Magazine. Perhaps I ought also to inform you, that although it is not my first attempt at drawing, it is absolutely my first at etching upou copper.

The figures represented on the pannels of this Font are, 1st. St. Catherine; d. Mary and the infant Jesus; 8d. Four roses; 4th. Two leaves within a garter in the figure of a heart; 5th. The rood; 6th. Not visible, owing to the font standing against a pillar; 7th. A Bishop; and 8th. a grotesque figure, perhaps a dragon, out of whose mouth, as it appears to me, proceeds a tree. A friend of mine, who is versed in Antiquities, has informed me that the tree was used in Monkish times to represent the Church, and the Dragon the Evil Spirit, or Devil. He therefore suggests that the present sculpture may be designed to figure the dragon gnawing at the root of the tree, or without a metaphor, Satan trying to undermine the Church.

This antient Church of Lekhamsted has about it many traces of Norman or Saxon architecture; particularly a circular-beaded and much ornamented Door on the North side; of which I have a drawing that shall be much at your service.

Yours, &c.

H.W.

Mr. URBAN, Exeter, Nov. 2T.

S a rare book is an article which

A interests many, allow me to in

form you, that I have lately had one come to hand, of which I have never noticed an account in Catalogues, or seen any where described; and, from its miniature size, in the course of more than 200 years may perhaps be nearly extinct. The title of this little curiosity is as follows.

GENT. MAG. December, 1816.

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The book consists of 90 leaves not paged, letter-press 14 inch wide by 3 long, with an ornamented border to every page; the Author's name, H Plat, appears at the end of a poe tical Epistle preceding the body of the Work, of which the following is an extract; and from this little specimen I presume you will not deem him a very contemptible Poet for those days.

"To all true Lovers of Arte and Knowledge.

Sometimes I write the formes of burning balles, [wrought: Supplying wants that were by woodfals Sometimes of tubs defended so by arte,. As fire in vaine hath their destruction

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The King had written a booke with his owne hand, wherein were many things concerning Government, and in it a model of Government

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for this nation according to that of France; and to effect it, he bringing in the German horse, there by to settle it. Old Ea. of Bedford had seene or heard of this booke; and being familiar with Oliver St. John, since Chief Justice, told him of it, who by all means wrought with the E. of Bedf. that he might see this booke, which he accomplisht, and made use of it against the King; which the King perceived, and found it to be Bedford, with whom he was very angry.

Mr. Crisp, Jan. 1659.

George Lord Villiers Duke of Buckingham had in his prosperity twentyfive thousand pound a year in England and Ireland.

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Vpon Friday, December 16, 1653, in great state attended by the chiefe officers of the army, except Major general Harrison, he went to the Chancery Court in Westminster-hall, babited in a black plush suit and cloake, where he stood bare-headed an houre; and Lisle the Commissioner of the Great Seal read to him the new Charter, as also his oath, which oath he repeated after Lisle, and signed this Charter, and then sealed it with the Great Seale. The Judges were all present except Chief Justice Rolls, and the Mayor of London Vyner; then Lambert and Whaley were the chief officers, and assisted him to his seat, which was a stately chayre with costly foot clothes and most rich cushions; and then he sate in it, and put on his hat, none els being covered in the Court.

The Mayor gave him his sword, and he rendered it him againe. The Keepers the seale, and he gave it them againe.

Then the Mayor went afore him through Westminster-hall, which was thronged with people, and with a great guard to his coach.

Fol. 23.

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At the marriage of his daughter to Rich in Nov.1657, the Protector threw about sack posset among all the la dyes to soyle their rich clothes, which they tooke as a favour; and also wett sweet-meates; and dawbed all the stooles where they were to sit with wett sweet-meates; and pulled of Rich it into the fire, but did not, yet he his perucque, and would have throwne sate upon it.

Fol. 24.

When the King was beheaded, the body and head put into a coffin Oliver Cromwell came with one Bowand set in the Banquetting-house, tell of Suffolk, near Framingham, and tried to open the lid with his staffe, but could not; then be tooke Bowtell's sword, and with the pum mell knockt up the lid, and lookt upon the King, shewing him to Bontell. Then at that time this Bowtell askt

him, what Government wee should have? He said, the same that is now. This, Bowtell told Col. Rolston.

Fol

Fol. 71.

PRINCE RUPERT.

Tis very remarkable of Prince Rupert, that his ship having sprung a plonke, and there was not likelihood of safety in the midds of the sea, be seemed not ready to run into the boat for safety, nor did intend it. They all, about sixty, besought him to save himselfe, and take some others with him in the boat to rao him, telling him, he was deffered and appointed for greater matters, and prest him to leave them; and they all with constancy and courage stayd in the shipp, and be in the boat saw them all sinke. Sir Rich. Wellys.

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The manner of the King's escape from the battayle of Worcester, as the Lady Wood relates it, who heard the King tell it his mother.

At first he goes off the field with a good body of horse, then selects thirty, of which he after a while takes onely the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Wilmot, and a mosse trooper knowing of the wayes: with these he goes to a gentleman's house, who afore the baltayle had told him all he had was at his service; but dare not shelter him. The King goes with the mosse trooper into a great

Wilmot found that this was wife to
an officer of his once, and, by work-
ing by the smyth, who willingly shel-
tered a poore cavalier, as Wilmot
told him, Mr. Lane was brought up,
and Wilmot pulled out of the hay-
mow, and then both go together and
fetch the King out of the tree and
carry him to Mr. Lane's howse, where
he is nobly receiv'd, shav'd, dy'd,
and put into parke-keeper's cloathes,
and was to ride with Mrs. Lane as her
man, and Wilmot to come at distance
behind; and thus they convey'd him
to nights to Bristoll, where going into
the ship. But stay, in the journey,
and by the way, the King was to pre-
tend to be sick of an ague, and by
that meanes to be sent to bed early
to avoid being seene; and using to
sitt in the chimney-corner, Mrs.
Lane would say, This boy will never
recover, hee'le n'ere be good againe,
and the like. One night a foot sol-
dier was in their company, and see-
ing him have an ague,
"Here, boy,
here's to thee, The King's health,"
and made him pledge him, "that
will cure thee." Well, at Bristoll
going into the shipp the master said,
"This is the King of Scots, but I'le
carry him safe over." And so they
went to Deep, where his greene
cloathes were kept, and showne for
money. Mr. Crisp, March 1659.

FALL OF The Rhine.
From the General Outline of the
Swiss Landscapes.

wood, having quitted D. of Buck: BUT

afore; now he desires Lord Wilmot to leave him, because his face was so knowne. The King and the m. trooper quit their horses and go into a hollow yvy tree, ten or twelve yards from the rode side, where they saw the enemy goe by; there they stay'd till evening the trooper quaked and shak't so much, the King imagined by shaking the leaves hee'd betray him. In the duske of the evening, and the coast clear, they quit the tree, and go about to get out, and in the wood meets Wilmot againe. Then the King quitted the trooper, and they two go together, the King back to the tree, and Wilmot being hungry goes afore to spy and provant, and on a heath was a smyth's shop. Wilmot was to provant. The smyth hydes Wilmot; and accidentally one Mrs. Lane, living hard by, was there.

OUT to return to the Rhine: the numerous waters of this river have been ever since rushing after, and ever resounding over the steep above mentioned. While we were yet at some distance, we could distinguish a mist rising up as if it had been from so many boiling springs: these announce the cascade to your eyes-as its din long before does to your ears, like a hundred forges all blowing at once. We hurried to the bank, and stood by the mill behind the fall. Here, in a wilderness of waves, we saw throngs of currents shocking against or undermining each other; these joining and shot like batteringrams against the crags; those again followed close by others and all with irresistible sway rapt down.

There is an ample reservoir formed by Nature for the waters after their descent; for their impetuosity car

ries them straight-forward, a great way, to a rock on which a tower stands. This divides them in two: one part recoils off to the left, and pursues its course-the other part is turned round to the right in a prodigious whirlpool, slowly but irresist ibly kept in motion by the column of water which darts for ever from the fall. This whirlpool would be fatal any boat, for the upper current is drawn round again under the lesser falls: the force of which, equal to many pile-engines, jars the waves, so that in their re-action they rise up, and beat against the shores at that part like a furious surf of the sea. In the mean while, as the reservoir is fresh supplied, it communicates with the lower channel by an under-cur rent, and pursues its way.

to

the

ter its descent sliding swiftly forward, brushing along the edges of that whirlpool, and overtopping it at the same time; it is diffused along it in continued boughs that blossom the sea-green deeps with foam. The eye broods with a pleasure that nothing can glut, on the rich and sparkling sea-green shuffled among the foam and smoke that half-smother it; as well as on the globes and pyramids of mist spun off perpetually from the smaller masses. In some parts the water springs and bubbles up in jets; from the smaller masses only, the main one being hid ever in impenetrable gloom, The paintings that one sees. commonly do not express any thing of this; but still less the colours, whose freshness, to say nothing of their incessant shifting, surpasses any pencil, The artist ordinarily confuses them together, as if he had flung a sponge upon the pic ture from incapacity and despair-so clumsily is it done!At first the wa ters standing high above the edge of the precipice lap over it, smooth as a round piece of blue marble, In moment they are snatched down→ then begin the veins of foam, over which, if the sun shines, is dropped a rainbow. They do not in any part drop plumb down but are fretted over an obliquely-winding precipice full of gulphs. And at the very point where they begin to shelve down they are divided by immeuse crags into three principal masses (one of these masses is larger than the two others together-this next the Lauf, fen bank). The dividing crags are covered on this side with moss and shrubs; they have evidently been reft asunder by the currents. They do not stand in a line and one has been hewn across, so that a transverse pas, sage is afforded to a part of the stream. Another of these crags thasd been bored through and hollowed out, serving as a muzzle to a column of the torrent that bursts through it like t a cannon-ball.

In front there is a view of the Rhine for some way before, and for a considerable way after its fall, when it bends off in a sharp angle to the left by Lauffen-Castle; and enters into a forest. Here, indeed, I saw Sir William Chambers's fiction realized. "In one place a whole river is precipitated from summits into the valley beneath; where it foams and whirls among rocks till it falls down other precipices, and buries itself in the gloom of impenetrable forests, In another place the waters burst out with violence from many parts, spout ing a great number of cascades in different directions: which, through various impediments, at last unite, and form one great expanse of water. Sometimes the view of the cascade is in a great measure intercepted by the branches which hang over it. Some times its passage is obstructed by trees, and heaps of enormous stones, that seem to have been brought down by the fury of the torrents. And frequently rough wooden-bridges are thrown from one rock to another over the steepest part of the cata ract. Narrow winding paths are carried along the edges of the precipice; and mills and huts are suspended over the waters; the seeming dangerous situation of which adds to the horror

of the scene.

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On the opposite side of the river is a pavillion on the Lauffen bank, that appears, in that distance, of the exact size and shape of a ship-lantern. From this pavillion there is a bird's eye view of the river. You see it af

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mountain-blast! flinging off eternal clouds, whose impetuosity, not yet spent, bears them up a long time forward in the air, in a deep-moving body. The eyes and ears are incapable of following any thing distinctly you pant for breath-while the lodge beats and rocks violently to and fro under you. In a word, this fall is a combination of all the cascades and falls in Switzerland, and is well worthy of the time and fatigue it cost us of coming a journey of four days to see it and nothing more. It is probable," says Coxe, "that the space between the banks was once a level rock, and considerably higher; that the river has insensibly undermined these parts on which it broke with the utmost violence for within the memory of several inha bitants of this town, a large rock has given way, which has greatly altered the scene. The fall is diminished every year by the continual friction of so large and rapid a body of water; and there is no doubt that the two crags in the midst of the river will in time be undermined and carried away. The Rhine for some way before the fall, dashes upon a rocky bottom, and renders the navigation impossible for any kind of vessel: the whole bottom indeed of the river is rock as far as Schaffausen.”

After having mused upon it for a considerable time, giving ourselves up to a pleasing sensation of amazement and terror, we returned to Schaffausen by a private path, along the bank of the river:-recalling to our imagination the stupendous scene we had just witnessed, our ears still ́ ringing with the roar of waters, and our eyes still figuring them in their thousand forms: just as the senses, when strongly impressed with any object, retain the appearance of its and hold it up to the mind, for a considerable time after it is removed from view.na L. S.

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panied the late Lord Grantham, as Chaplain, to the Embassy to Spain 1771. Mr. Falconer's researches were recommended to his attention by Dr. Markham, then Bp. of Chester, and the late Archbishop of York. Upon occasional visits to the Escurial, Mr.Waddilove was apprised that the Library there (rich in MSS.) contained a MS. of Strabo; this MS. did not appear to be very old-still, upon some specimens of variations being sent to Dr. Markham, he recommended the Collation; and this was, afterwards, partly effected, through the favour of Don Francisco Perez Bayer, by one of the Friars of the Convent, and R. D. Waddilove. For his assistance in this business, the Delegates of the press presented him with a copy of the Strabo, 1808.

Don F. P. Bayer, a canon of Toledo, and a Doctor of Valencia, was then the Preceptor of the Infants Don Gabriel and Don Antonio. He pub lished in 1772, that fine specimen of printing, the Infant Don Gabriel's Translation of Sallust.

Dr. F. P. B. was afterwards Principal Librarian of the Royal Library Madrid (but never of the Escurial, as Mr. Falconer says). He succeeded

Santander, who succeeded Don

Juan Iriarte.

Don Juan Iriarte published in fo lio, 1769, the first volume of an Account of the MSS. in the Royal Li brary at Madrid; and it is not known whether any further volume has since been published. His sons were men of learning, and their names were known in the Revolutions at Madrid.

One of your Correspondents, Mr. Urban, Part I. p. 489, was much mistaken in supposing that the late Bp. of London (Porteus) had any thing to do with Mason's Work,

Mr. URBAN,

Q.

'Dec. 12.

N attention to the request of IR.E.R. in p. 386, I beg to inclose

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a fac-simile of Sir Philip Sidney's Letter to his sister Lady Pembroke, pre- འང་། ། fixed as a dedication to an edition a of a the Arcadia in my possession: It thus entitled:- "The Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia, written by Sir Philip Sidney, knt. ; now the third time published, with sundry new additions of the same Author. Edinburgh, printed by Robert Waldegrave, printer to the King's Majesty. privilegio Regio, 1599." There is like.

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