To the North of the Abbey, and on the East side of the neighbouring Church-yard, is a mansion, called the Abbey House; but there is not any object now to strengthen this idea: it is indeed possible that on this spot, soon after the demolition of the Monastery, those to whom the spoil was decreed might erect a habitation, in ́ order to confirm them lords paramount over the prostrate splendour around; as was the case in many parts of the kingdom in the sixteenth century. However, that this same appellation, Abbey House, might not fade in men's recollections, the now owner, agreeable to the prevailing taste of exhibiting in new-erected cottages something like " Abbeys, and Priories, &c." presents you with certain signs in this way, a doorway of entrance, and a number of offices, in the Pointed manner, but devoid of the necessary details, unless pointed apertures and notches in the walls can possibly constitute them so. In the grounds to this Abbey House, an Egyptian Pyramid, or obelisk, has been set up, and on it stuck the Saxon Cross, and one half of the diagonals belonging to the line of wall described as above. A small square Roman Tablet is also placed above the Cross, with the following notice: This Obelesque A. D. 1806; with Stones of to perpetuate the History of Surrey, Pub. 1804. vol. I." What a strange congestion of Egyptian, Saxon, and Roman modes of Architecture crammed together, to commemorate the destruction of an English range of buildings, consecrated to the purposes of religious worship and holy seclusion! And what is yet still more strange, these perpetuators term one small piece of masonry (the Cross) the ornaments* (the whole assemblage it seems they would infer) used within the Abbey. * Ornaments literally mean such per formances as come from the hands of the Sculptor or Carver, such as flowers, fruits, foliage, &c. The Parish Church has just gonê through a Compo-ing improvement; has been beautified, and all the rest of it, common on such occasions; displaying, if possible, a more odious semblance than it exhibited at my first visitation in 1779. (St. Saviour's, or St. Mary Overy's, in our next.) Mr. URBAN, June 20. T is now three years since you did me the favour of publishing an address I made to the world respecting the experiment of Vaccination. Time has witnessed the truth of this appeal; and notwithstanding continual occurrences to prove the failure, diseases, and mortality of Cow Pox, the practice has continued to be approved and rewarded by the Parliament and the College of Physicians. At length the veil is drawn from the eyes of the publick at large; and the common voice calls aloud for the blessings which Inoculated Small pox bestowed upon the helpless infant, revolting at the tyrannical law which a Bill lately introduced into the House threatened us with. That Parliament can only do harm by interfering in medical matters, is modestly set forth in a very candid paper printed and distributed by the original Vaccine Institution, to the Members of the House of Commons. In that paper the Committee expressly acknowledge that from their experience of nine years, "no circumstance known can entirely obviate the liability of the experiment to fail of giving security." After so fair an acknowledgment, corroborated by the Return of the College of Surgeons, and confirmed by the fatal effects of Cow-pox Protection at Ringwood, no one, I think, can doubt, that there was some prevarication in the Report of the Jenuerian Society relative to that partial investigation *. For my part, Sir, I have been silent as to the bad language with which my character has been assailed, or my motives for never changing my opinion arraigned; content that the period could not be distant, when my reasons would be acknowledged to be just, and when the fallacy which had deluded the Faculty would be evident. *This Report (see p. 344) will best vindicate itself. EDIT. That That the distant parts of this Empire may know what has been doing in the Metropolis, and that the insecu rity of Cow-pox may be announced to the world, I again claim the impartiality of your publication to announce, that neither the Bill proposed by Mr. Fuller, nor the motion expected from Mr. Rose, can do more than has been done by the original Vaccine Institution; who do not scruple to declare-" There is no such thing in nature as spurious matter. There is no absolute security in Cow-pox, though excited in the most distinct manner known. That bad arms and death depend on the constitution and treatment; and that the asserted success in Foreign Countries is utterly incredible." Yours, &c. JOHN BIRCH. Mr. URBAN, June 6. BENEFICED Clergyman, p. 317, makes heavy complaints against Mr. Perceval's Bill in favour of Stipendiary Curates. Amongst a variety of observations, I was particularly struck with the following: "Let me only add, that should the Bill take place, as I suppose it will, I use no exaggeration, I speak but the language of strict and literal truth, when I say for myself, as an individual, that were it not for the support of a small private fortune (for which I can never be sufficiently thankful to Divine Providence) with a numerous family, Icould see no prospect before me, notwithstanding the utmost frugality and soberness in my way of living, but that of passing the remainder of my days, without pity and without hope of release, in the vile durance of a County Gaol." I would ask VERAX, who confesses his living to be moderately large, if he expects such dreadful consequences from the operation of the Bill in question, what must be the present situation of the Curate, who, with a family equally large, and without any private fortune, is allowed a very small stipend, compared with Verax's emoluments; and who, should the proposed enactment take place, will even then be entitled to no more than a fifth of the value of the living? Should the Curate's health fail, he would not, like his Rector or Vicar, have a certain income to depend upon, but must in reality experience the horrors of a Gaol, which with N the year 1796, the alarm which was sounded by EUSEBIUS and others in your pages, on the sup posed operation of the Curates' Act, 36 Geo. III. before that Act had time to operate, seems to have been revived by your correspondent VERAX, and probably with as little foundation. I had the satisfaction at that period of contributing my mite to undeceive the publick on this subject; and the result very shortly proved that I was correct in my observations. In your pages that effort was first made, which shortly afterwards extended into a pamphlet of 60 pages*, wherein the futile principles assumed by EUSEBIUS and his abettors were fully corrected. I have examined with some attention the heads of the "Stipendiary Curates" Bill, and find so little to object, though a non-resident Vicar, that I cannot see whence the alarm proceeds, unless from the proposed disclosure of the "annual value of the benefice," of the effects of which VERAX, from the instance given of his own living, has no reason to be afraid. In an abstract of a Bill of such importance, though I cannot expect to see many explana tory clauses, I have little doubt that the usual phrase, "having regard to the greatness of the cure, and the value of the ecclesiastical benefice," will be introduced, and all reasonable cause of objection removed. From a disclosure of "the annual value," I can perceive no mischievous result from benefices of moderate or inferior value, such as VERAX alludes to; from rich rectories or vicarages only can any effect be expected, and in a much less proportion than is apprehended. He anticipates that "the Bill in question will give a prodigious deal of trouble to the Bishops;" but he seems to miscalculate on its operation, as writers on that side of the question then did, which I then. * See Eusebius's letter in the Gent. Mag. for October 1796, p. 837, and some following numbers; and "Plain Facts submitted to the Archbishops and Bishops, &c. on the late, Curates Act," dated Oct. 1796, in which the other parts of VERAX's letter are amply discussed. 078 fully fully demonstrated, and as the event has verified. VERAX, assuredly, need be in no fear" of the vile durance of a County Gaol," from any thing contained in this Act; for whether it expresses the reasonable objects I have stated, or not, supposing it should pass into a law, the Bishops are not such Egyptian task-masters as to demand "the tale of bricks" without a due supply of" straw." I then wrote as a Country Curate, I now write as a Country Vicar of a parish not overburdened with income; but I write with the same sentiments and with the same conviction of the operation of the Act; and I venture to predict that VERAX may sleep in peace, without any cause for the alarming consequences he has stated. Mr. URBAN, A COUNTRY VICAR. June 10. I Fox's historical work lately pub N Lord Holland's preface to Mr. lished, is a letter written by that gentleman to the present Earl Grey, in which he enters into a discussion on the singing powers of the Nightingale, and the description given thereof the poets. Mr. Fox, in this letter, states his surprize at the common notion that the note of the Nightingale should be considered as a mournful one, and that it should have been so represented by Virgil in his celebrated simile. He adds that this is a singular instance, and that other poets, among whom he mentions Homer, have described it otherwise. For this illustration he refers Mr. Grey to one of the last six books of the Odyssey. The passage adverted to occurs in T. Penelope is there introduced, in a conversation with Ulysses, then in disguise, comparing herself to Ardon the daughter of Pandareus (the Night ingale), bewailing (oλoupon) the fate of her son Stylus. It is true that Penelope illustrates by this simile her own restlessness and uncertainty of mind, as well as her cares and sorrows: but the question is not in what state Penelope is represented, but of what sort is the note of the Nightingale described, lively or sorrowful; and in direct contradiction to the assertion of Mr. Fox, Homer, it appears, applies the very epithet in Greek to this bird which is best translated by the word used by Virgil-mærens. Indeed throughout the whole pas sage the Greek Poet is evidently the prototype of the Roman. Shakspeare also, no mean authority in any disquisition upon a subject of this kind, makes use of the same idea. "And, to the Nightingale's complaining notes, Tune my distresses, and record my woes." Two Gent. of Verona, A. 5. S. 4. Mr. Fox was an able, and occasionally an elegant debater in the House of Commons. But his friends have acted wrong in bringing him forward as an historian and classical scholar. Upon his merits in the former character I will not anticipate the animadversions of regular criticism*. But with reference to the latter, I may be permitted to say, that from the dissipation and idleness of his earlier years, Mr. Fox in Greek and Roman Literature was neeess rily an Opsimath; and his mistakes therefore upon that subject, however they may be matter of regret to his friends, can never be the subject of wonder to others. PALEUS. Mr. URBAN, FR June 12. ROM the experiments I have tried, I find that, on being dried, which should be done in the shade, the leaves of the Viue make an excellent and extremely wholesome tea; though somewhat different, both in taste and flavour from that commonly used. I have also found that, besides being admirably calculated for making vinegar, the prunings of the Vine, on being bruised and put into a vat or mashing-tub, and boiling water poured on them, in the same way as is done with malt, produce a liquor of a fine vinous quality; which, being fermented, forms a finc substitute for beer; and which, on being distilled, produces a very fine spirit, of the nature of brandy. As this is the season for pruning the Vine, many thousand cart-loads of which are, year after year, thrown away as useless, where there are not goats to eat them; and the idea here suggested is not only new, but of high importance to the inhabitants of this country, particularly at the present juncture; your inserting it in your useful and interesting Magazine will oblige JAMES HALL. |