the end of Kent Street, where stood the Lock Hospital, and new cross turnpike, as you go to Deptford. It is in Surrey, and was antiently the place for the execution of criminals. You will find it, I believe, in some of the maps of the environs of London. It is in the map of Kent in Camden's Britannia, placed on the borders of that county; and it was mentioned in the Votes of the House of Commons last sessions; so that it still bears the same name. Chaucer mentions it in the prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

And forth we riddin all a litel space

Unto the Watering of S'. Thomas.

It occurs in the old morality of Hycke Scorner, p. 105.

For at saynt Thomas of Watrynge, and they stryke a [fayle.

sayle,

Then must they ryde in the haven of hempe without
And Jonson also has it in the New Inn:

He may, perhaps, take a degree at Tyburn,
A year the earlier; come, to read a lecture
Upon Aquinas at St. Thomas à Waterings,
And so go forth a laureat in hemp circle.

Act. i. S. 3." Though Mr. Whalley was dubious as to the meaning of the speech from Mary upon her mother, yet his note confirms the observation of Mr. Steevens of its being "a wretched quibble between spittle, the moisture of the mouth, and spital, a corruption from hospital;" and Mr. Malone's observation is also confirmed of "a poor quibble on the word waterings.' Certainly conjecture too frequently clogs the foot of

the Shaksperian pages, but should remain until apposite passages can be adduced from contemporary writers, that give better explanations. The above note, while it supports the double quibbling, may ground the surmise that the speech, reduced to common idiom, is in character, by applying the allusions in the following manner: << a small matter wets a handkerchief, and sometimes spittle serves the widow [of a delinquent who suffers] at Saint Thomas à Waterings." J. H.

ART. DCCCXLII. Extract from a Manuscript of Dr. Simon Forman.

THE following transcript, which cannot but be allowed of a curious if not interesting nature, considering the publicity of the character from whom it proceeds, may not be unacceptable to the readers of CENSURA LITERARIA. It is taken from a manuscript in the hand-writing of the celebrated doctor Simon Forman, whose base conduct with Mistress Turner in the affair relative to the depraved although beautiful Countess of Essex, is too well known to be here repeated.* The manuscript was discovered prefixed to a volume of very old and valuable tracts formerly in Dr. Forman's possession, to which he has added a vast number of notes: it is here copied literally, and should the perusal prove interesting, the trouble of deciphering will be amply repaid to the person who now communicates it.

* For a very satisfactory account of this shameful, or rather shameless transaction, see Brydges's Memoirs of Peers, Vol. I. pp. 96, 97, et seq.

Of Lucifer's creation, and of the worlde's creation.

"Lucifer was the first angel that God created, and was created by the Father the first person in Trinity, and was an angel moste brighte, and gloriouse; and wente before all other, and was the greateste among them, and was created before this wordelie the term of 5004 yers.

"Lucifer staid in glory, before he fell, the space of 500 years.

"He fell before the creation of this wordle 4504 yeres, and

"He and his compani remayned in the darknes of chaos included in the mundo intelligibili 2004.

"And after they had bin included in that perpetuall darknes of chaos aforsaid the space of 2004 yers, then the Lord created the celestialle wordle, and out of the beste and suprem matter of the chaos he drue out and made the prima mobile, the watri firmamente, the christallen heauen, the * and all the fixed stars, and orbes, and all the plannets in order as they ar. And included them into a leess rom for their prid and arrogancy. And ther they remained 1800 years more in that darkness, before the Lord created the sonn or mone, and made them to giue lighte over all the wordle, or y' the Lord seperated the earth and the waters for yt is said, that darknes was over the face of the whole earth, and this darknes remained after the heauens were created the space I say of 1800 yers. And the Lord

*After much trouble and fruitless endeavour, I am compelled to pass over two words here, which I can by no means discover. The whole is written very unintelligibly.

made the sonn to governe the dai, and the mone and the stars to governe the night. And then the earth he saith was void and empty : That ther was nether tre nor herbe nor any thing ells theron; for yt was naked and bare, and the Lord bad the earth bring forth trees, herbes, and grasse, and all things necessary. And then he created beastes, fish, foulle, wormes, and divers other thinges, and put them on the earth, and in the ayer and waters. And this was done 200 yers before Adam was created. For the birdes, the beastes, the fish, the foulle, ye wormes and every thing on the earth, or in the earth necessary for man, were mad and created 200 yers before. man was created, and the breath of lyfe put into him.

"The heauens were created before Adam 2000 yeres.

"The beasts, birds, and all other things were created 200 yers before Adam.

"Yt is from the tyme of the creation of Lucifer vnto the year of Christ 1593, the 4 of May 15541 yers.

"Lucifer staid in glory 500 yers.

"He fell before the creation of the heauens or prima mobile 4504 yers.

"The heauens, as the prima mobile, watri firmament and christalen heaue, were created before Adam 2000 yers.

"From the creation of Adam vnto this day, viz. the first of October 1593, are 8537 years, and almoste 6 months, for yt was created in Aprill as yt seams."

Thus ends this singular production of Simon Forman.

P. B.

ART. DCCCXLIII.

Ane godlie Dreame, com

pylit in Scottish meter be M. [Mistress] M. [Melvill] Gentlewoman in Culros, at the requeist of her Friendes.

Introite per angustam portam, nam lata est via quæ ducit ad interitum.

Edinburgh: Printed be Robert Charteris, 1603, 4to.

A subsequent edition of this rare book bears the following title:

A godly Dream, by Elizabeth Melvill, Lady Culros, younger: at the request of a speciall friend. Aberden. Imprinted by E. Raban, Laird of letters. 1644. 8vo.

MR. PINKERTON, in his second Dissertation prefixed to Scottish Tragic Ballads, 1781, has cited several passages from an edition printed at Edinburgh, in 1737. A marginal note in his reprint of the same work, 1783, adds the following information.

"The Lady Culross here meant, was Elizabeth daughter of Sir James Melvil of Halhill, and wife of John Colvil, commendator of Culross. She is believed to have been the mother of Samuel Colvil the satirical poet, author of the Scots Hudibras,* &c."

In his preliminaries to Scotish poems, 1792, the same writer says" it seems very doubtful that this lady could be the mother of Colvil the poet, who

"A poor piece of Nonsense;" says Mr. P. in his list of the Scotish poets, prefixed to Maitland poems, p. cxxvi.