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pokok kýs qu. peacocks?], cranes, roast venison, rabbit, bittern, fowl endore, graunt tartez, deaun fryèz, leche lunibarde, a soteste.

Third Course.-Blaundesorye, quincys in comfyte, egretez, curlews, partridge, pigeons, quails, snipes, small birds, rabbits, pome correng, braun blanke leche, eggs engelez, frittours, doucettys, pety p'ueny, egle, potts of cel, a soteste.

Feast at the Funeral of Nichol Bubbewith, late Bishop of Bath and Wells, 4th Dec. 1424.

In Flesh-First Course.-Nombly's de roo, blamangere, braun with mustard, chines of pork, roast capon de haute grece, roast swan, roast heron, aloes de roo, puddyng de swan necke, á rechemete, a bake vz crustade.

Second Course.-Roo styned, maumenys, coney roasted, curlew, pheasant roasted, woodcock roast, partridge toast, plover roast, snipes roast, great birds roasted, larks roasted, venison de roe roasted, eggs, a leche, bread puffe, cold bakemeat.

Dinner of Fish for Religious men [i.e. Monks] at the said Funeral.

First Course. -Eels in sorry, blamanger, bakoun heryng, mulwyl tales, ling tails, jellies of salmon, merlyng soye, pike, great plaice, leche barry, crustade ryal.

Second Course.-Maumenge, codling, haddock, fresh hake, soles y saye, gurnet broiled with a syrrup, bream a mere, roche, perch, menise fried, eggs, eels roasted, leche lumbard, great crabs, a cold bake mete.

Some idea of many of the preceding dishes may be formed from the following recipes for making them. First, with respect to soups, or rather, perhaps, sauces:

Soup Dorry-Shear onions, and fry them in oil; then take wine and boil with onions; toast white bread and do on a dish, and cast thereon good almond milk, and temper it with wine; then do the dorry about, and mess it forth.

Oil Soups.-Take a good quantity of onions, and mince them, not too small, and seth [i.e. boil] in fair water; then take them up, and take a good quantity of stale ale, as three gallons, and thereto take a pint of oil fried, and cast the onions thereto, and let boil altogether a good while; then

cast thereto saffron, powder pepper, and salt, and serve forth all hot as toast, and in the same manner for a mallard or capon.

But the preceding appear quite simple in comparison with the following: Soups of Salomere.Take boiled then pork and hew it and grind it; take cow-milk, and eggs, and swange and saffron, and mince parsley-blades and cast thereto, and let boil altoge ther, and dress up on a cloth, and kerne there of small lechys, and do them in a dish; then take almond milk, and flower of rice, and saffron, and boil it altogether, then cast in, serve on thin lechys, and serve forth all hot.

It would be curious to hear Dr. Kitchener's opinion of" Pome Dorres:"

Pome Dorres.-Take filletts of raw

pork, and grind them well, do salt and powder pepper thereto, then take the white of eggs and throw thereto, and make them round as an apple, make fire without smoke; then take almond milk, and the bontyd flor', do them together, take sugar and put in them, beat them, do them with some green thing, parsley or yolks of eggs together, that they be green, and be well ware that they be not brown; and some men boil them in fresh broth or [before] they be spitted; and when they been so boiled then they must be set and cooled, and then spit them and do them with yolks of eggs, and coloured with hazel leaves.

7 The well known Scotch dish, the "Haggis" is thus described:

Haggis of a Sheep.-Take the roppis with the tallow [fat] and parboil them, then hack them small; grind pepper and saffron, and bread and yolkes of eggs, and raw cream or sweet milk; do all together, and do in the great womb of the sheep, that is, the maw, and then set him and serve forth in.

An "Allow of Beef or Mutton" seems to have been no bad thing:

Take fair beef of the quyschons and mutton of the bottes, and cut them in the manner of steaks; then take raw pars ley, small and shred, and yolks of eggs boiled hard, and marrow or suet, and hew all these together small; then cast thereon powder of ginger and saffron, and roll them together with thin hand and lay them on the steaks all abroad, and cast salt thereto; then roll toge ther and put them on a round spit, and

1826.] Precedence of Spiritual Peers ?—Gray's Inn Hall.

Foast them 'till they be enough; then lay them in a dish, and pour thereon vinegar and a little verjuice, and powder pepper thereon enough, and vinegar, and cinnamon, and a few yolks of hard eggs strewed thereon, and serve forth.

It may be the subject of serious doubt among epicures, whether we have improved in the dressing of a beef steak:

To make Steaks of Venison or Beef. -Take venison and slice it, and griddle it up brown; then take vinegar and a little verjuice and a little wine, and put powder pepper thereon enough, and powder ginger; and at the dresser strew on powder, cinnamon enough, that the steaks be all rubbed therewith, and but a little salt, and serve it forth.

But of all messes ever imagined by a disciple of Apicius, surely nothing has ever equalled a Porpoise pudding! Pudding of Porpoise. Take the blood of him, and the grease [fat] of himself, and oatmeal, and salt, and ginger, and pepper, and mix them together well, and then put them in a gut of the porpoise, and then let it boil easily and not hard a good while, and then take him up and broil him a little, and then serve forth.

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I SHALL feel obliged if any of your readers will acquaint me with the cause of Bishops taking precedence of temporal Barons. I, of course, know that a particular place is assigned to the Bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester, among their own order, by Stat. 31 Hen. VIII., but unless a prescriptive right be set up, I am at a loss to understand why the spiritual are placed above the temporal peers. If it be urged that the former are merely the representatives of certain temporal possessions annexed to their Sees, to which possessions a seat in Parliament is assigned, and that that seat is superior to the place of any temporal Baron summoned to the House by virtue of a Patent granted, or Writ of Summons directed to himself or his ancestors, is it not extraordinary that the precedency of each Bishop should not be uniformly the same? but, as with the exception of the Prelates just mentioned, every Bishop anks according to the date of his consecration, the argument that he repre

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sents certain possessions falls to the ground.

Frankly confessing myself, then, totally unable to explain the question, I appeal, through your pages, to such of your Correspondents as will do me the favour to give me information upon the subject. CLIONAS.

Mr. URBAN,

Aug. 9.

T has been your frequent task to

fices, and in the great number of instances at different times brought be fore your readers, I apprehend that the hands of senseless innovators have been more frequently censured and condemned than an opportunity has been afforded you of praising the exertion of a good taste in the restoration of such subjects. In some buildings the additions of the modern workmen have been confined to ornaments and mouldings which may easily be de tected and detached from the main structure. In others (as in that which I am about to notice), a total and irreparable destruction has taken place, as if the improver, in the plenitude of his vanity, was determined that nothing of the original should remain to shew by contrast the absurdity of his alterations.

The edifice which has demanded the

present notice, is the fine old Hall of Gray's Inn. To some of your Correspondents, it may be a matter of information to be told, that this structure was erected in the reign of Mary, and that until the late repairs, it was an almost perfect specimen of the architecture of the period. The walls were built with dark red brick; the mul lions and labels of the large square windows, and some other particulars, being constructed of stone. The prin cipal gables were marked by the ascending battlements, resembling steps, peculiar to the period, also worked in brick; the lateral walls being finished with plain parapets. The roof was tiled'; from the ridge about the centre rose a lantern of wood, of an octangular form, and finished with a leaded cupola; although this appendage was rather heavy, and the lightness of the pointed style had been almost disregarded in its construction, it was valuable to the Antiquary as an original work. The interior possessed a fine timber roof, with open worked beams, and a splendidly

carved music gallery, which from the superior style of its Italian architecture, was evidently of a later period than the building.

As a perfect specimen of the latest species of pointed architecture, this old Hall was greatly to be admired; and though it would have been far from good taste to have copied such a building, it was highly absurd to attempt to improve it by the introduction of modern fantastic ornaments. Yet such an attempt has been made, or is rather making and this communication will not, I fear, appear in time to stop the work of destruction, even if taste enough remained with those in power to attempt such a step. To proceed then with the improvements. The walls are being covered with compo, thereby gaining a smooth and even surface at the expence of the curious brick-work which I noticed as existing on the gables. Battlements of the modern kind, such as are to be seen upon many stables and other mean appendages to dwelling-houses, which the taste of the builders have erected in the "Gothic style," are being tacked on to the side walls. The roof has been stripped, and slates substituted for the tiles. And to crown the whole, a wooden lantern, of an entire new design, and much resembling a pigeon-house, substituted for the ancient one. So far the exterior. The inside I have not yet seen, but I cannot help instantly bringing before your notice the mischievous works which are going forward without waiting for their conclusion. I call them mischievous, because if any future set of Benchers should happen to possess taste enough to wish the removal of the rubbish with which the walls have been covered, they will not only be unable to effect their intention, but must have recourse to the same material to hide the ragged brick work which is necessarily defaced to make the plaster adhere. In addition to these restorations there are some new works, which, being in the same style, I cannot pass unnoticed. The former porches which covered the entrances to the Hall, were additions, and had round arches. These have been gothicized, as well as a coach passage at the western end of the Hall, communicating from Holborncourt to Gray's Inn-square, which is covered by a house; this has had a large pointed brick arch built across it at

each of its openings. Now nothing can equal the absurdity of these modern works. I need not tell your antiquarian readers that the archivolts of pointed arches were always curved. An opening formed of two strait lines meeting in an obtuse angle in the centre, scarcely rising twelve inches in as many feet, and humoured at the flanks into a slight curve, is the peculiar production of the modern " Car penter's Gothic School." Such an absurdity would have been treated by the scientific and tasteful architects of the Tudor æra with the most profound contempt; yet such a stupid form is to be seen in almost every "modern Gothic" work from the Royal entrance to the House of Lords, to the work now under consideration.

In Gray's Inn-square are some more additions in the same style worthy of notice. The Chapel has received a new porch and bell turret. The former has a more correctly formed pointed arch of entrance than those above noticed; but the slender buttresses which decorate the angles are so exceedingly taper and delicate, that they look more like the members of a screen than appendages to any out-door works. The little octangular turret stuck on the roof, is rather superior to the hall lantern; in point of dimensions it would form an appropriate finish to a watch box. The crown formed on its top by the junction of several ribs, is very pretty; and if the whole was accurately copied in pasteboard, it would greatly ornament a chimney-piece or babyhouse. The modern house between the Chapel and Hall has received a coat of stucco, and a bungling pediment as a finish. The sash windows have labels above their heads to give them a Gothic appearance, and make the building " harmonize with the surrounding structures," according to the cant of modern improvers.

I have, I believe, particularized all the improvements and alterations in Gray's Inn, though I have perhaps been rather premature in doing so before the completion of the "restorations." I have done this, because I feared some profound admirer of the modern Gothic school may take the field before me, and chance to laud to the

This is the Bencher's Room on the

ground floor, and the Library on the upper story. We cannot agree with our Correspondent in his censure of this alteration.-EDIT.

1826.]

Plan for producing moderate Parliamentary Reform.

skies the "improvements." I recollect that matchless example of "modern Gothic," the Regal entrance to the House of Lords, was highly praised in your pages, and set up as a rival to Henry the Seventh's Chapel, and that too by a gentleman who must have seen better things, and have been quite alive to all its deformities.

The interior I anticipate will suffer. When the innovators arrive there I may have occasion again to address you, and as I considered it would be a matter of little import to your readers to be told what carpenter designed the alterations and improvements which have formed the subject of this letter, I did not think it worth the trouble of the enquiry.

Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

THE

E. I. C.

Summerland, near Exeter, Aug. 27. HE Colossus of Literature, eminently characterized by strength of thought and moral feeling, justly said, that "Genius is strong general powers of mind, accidentally directed to some particular pursuit." In political and legislative science, we now happily see distinguished Statesmen urged on by the necessity of circumstances, to think with Bacon, that "a stubborn retention of customs is a turbulent thing." Measures which a century ago would have been resisted as dangerous innovations, we see carried into practical effect, with the fullest approbation and success. The real good sense of this is, that, seeing all human institutions advancing to an unattainable perfection, Time, the greatest of innovators, safely indicates what at length is generally felt necessary, in order to terminate obvious and long-standing evils. Men in power and possessing the vigour of mind and resolution contemplated by Johnson's apophthegm, see their way through continued error, at once do much to meliorate the human condition, and find their best reward in public gratitude, and in the mens sibi conscia recti.

In the present age of matured reflection and close inquiry, the public mind has been recently turned to the most important of all subjects, next to that of futurity, and that is the British Constitution. While this sentiment is general, it is equally felt that the requisite rectification ought to be well weighed and gradual, as best calculated to achieve the indispensable good

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wanted, according to the best experience at all times.-In some papers in your excellent work, Mr. Urban, some good precedents are adduced; and whatever has appeared since, tends to confirm the validity of these principles. Annual Parliaments and Universal Suffrage are projects so wild, extravagant, and impracticable, that they have been completely abandoned, excepting by a few who have nothing to lose and every thing to gain by innovations closely allied to insanity. It would be an idle waste of time to animadvert to what is mentioned only to be reprobated; and what would produce a maximum of corruption and evil in all gradations of society. It is, however, the generally allowed necessity of some degree of moderate and gradual melioration of the Constitution of the House of Commons, that originated the dangerous plans forced into notice by the crimes and madness of the French Revolution. I dismiss this unworthy part of the subject, by stating it to be the opinion of a majo rity of those who think that quinquennial would be preferable to septennial Parliaments, because the representatives and constituents would unquestionably be thus more advantageously assimilated and approximated; with the creation of a more salutary check on the former.

Boroughs were originally places of wealth and consequence, transferred by a more advanced state of civilization, arts, and commerce, to manufacturing and sea-port towns, where they are more apparent: and still the privilege of sending Members to Parliament remains ridiculously attached to a patrou, who, on his own terms, sends his Members to the House of Com mons; or to a few inhabitants who sell these seats in the Senate to the highest bidder. It is useless to inquire in what manner these Boroughs became what they never were intended to be, a positive property, now as inviolable as the National Debt. It is evident that, whether they are sold by the patron, or by the few inhabitants, the Members sent from them cannot be said to represent the people; and this is precisely the fair principle of justice to the nation, on which they may be made to represent, as originally, the real wealth and property of a nation so highly advanced in both.

By the law, as it now stands, these Boroughs can be disfranchised, if it

can be proved that the sitting Member or Members obtained a seat by bribery and corruption. But this is inconsistent, to say the least of it, as it is quite understood either that the Members purchased their seats, or that the patron sent them to the House, with an understanding that they must support his views or party, a thing which he ultimately finds of adequate value. The National Debt arose from borrowing money to defend the land and all property against the enemy; and therefore all property and the land are mortgaged to the amount of the principal and interest of this Debt. If faith were violated with the National Creditor, no future loans could be procured, but under the security of assigned property, and an unusual interest, and yet we hear the flippant and thoughtless recommending to wipe off this Debt with a sponge, or at any rate to reduce the interest. Though the Boroughs may not have the solid foundation of the Public Debt, it is right to treat them as bond fide property, under any future requisite arrangement. At the Scottish Union compensation was made: and Mr. Pitt could not have effected the Union with Ireland, if he had not bought off a certain number of the Boroughs in that country.

This Kingdom is divided into two leading Interests, the Landed and the Moneyed. The former is represented by the County Members, and by a large proportion of the Members for Boroughs; while the latter, and the Manufacturing, are very imperfectly represented. Six hundred Members are sufficient; and even the House will not hold that number. Twenty-nine of the most corrupt Boroughs bought off, would reduce the 658 Members to 600. One hundred and fifty more of these venal Boroughs might be purchased with the public money at so many years purchase of the usual medium price. Large manufacturing towns might have Members assigned to them, they repaying Government the original purchase-money. Many men of rank, education, and property, wish to enter the House of Commons, but will not by means of the bribery, corruption, collusion, and degrading practices now indispensable, and refecting so much disgrace on the British Nation. The purchase of the corrupt Boroughs with the public mo

ney, by an Act of the Legislature, offers an unexceptionable remedy for the disgraceful evil in question. At every election of a new Parliament, the purchased and unappropriated Boroughs would be put up at public sale, and the purchase money would go into the public Treasury. To prevent the introduction of low adventurers into the House, no person would be permitted to purchase a seat in the honourable manner proposed, unless he could prove that he had a bonâ fide income of fifteen hundred pounds a year. This simple and eligible plan of moderate Reform I have stated to many; and all have expressed their approbation of it, as obviating readily what is equally absurd and corrupt, with justice to those concerned, and manifest future benefit to the public interests of the kingdom.

The above constitutes the great and leading branch of Reform. Some of the large counties might have an additional Member; and, to prevent rioting, idleness, and dissipation, the election for Counties might take place in three places in the County, on one and the same day.-Borough electors paid off, would retain a vote in their County. The present forty-shilling Freeholders might remain so for life; but on account of the difference in the value of money, ten pounds should be the future sum. Copyholders of four times that amount ought to have a vote; and householders rated to fifty pounds.

JOHN MACDONALD.

CAROLUS says: "Can any of your numerous Correspondents inform me why the Earl of Guilford does not spell the name of that town in the way it is usually done by Geographers, viz. Guildford? A wellknown street near Russell-square is also spelled Guilford instead of Guildford."CAROLUS is informed that this mode of spelling is adopted, because Guilford has been so spelt in the patents of Peerage; and that there have been other instances of a difference between the modern (and perhaps correct) manner of writing a place, and the title taken from that place. Of this a memorable instance is the Earldom of Arlington, enjoyed by the Duke of Grafton, from Harlington in Middlesex : and another was the Viscountcy of Wimbleton from Wimbledon in Surrey. These discrepancies arose from the unsettled spelling of the times when the patents were made out, when orthography was an little regarded, that the owners themselves did not always spell their names in the same manner.

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