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Gent: Mag: Auguft. 1793. Pl:1,p: 689.

Knaresborough from the Banks of the Nydde.

K

Mr. URBAN, Aug. 2. NARESBOROUGH is feated eighteen miles Weft of the city of York, and nearly in the center of this part of England, between the Eastern fea or German Ocean and the Weftern or Irish fea; its fituation is rocky and high, and has commanding profpects of the country round. It is a neat and a pleasant town, with many good inns. It has a good market on Wednesdays; and has been long a royal franchife, governed by the fleward of the honour and a free jury. There is a flourishing manufactory of linen now carried on in this town and neighbourhood, which is of confiderable antiquity. Clofe to the Weftward of it paffes, in a rocky channel, the clear and tranfparent Nydd. Like other fine rivers, it abounds with moft fish, particularly trout, which de Jight principally in the Vale of Scotton, and its enemy the devouring pike,

bells, a good organ, erected a few years ago, and there are in the Church many remarkable and old monuments, particularly the Roundells, Warners, Rhodes's, Slingby's, &c.

"Ferocious tyrant of the watery plain," who with his wonted vigilance takes his fland below at Ribftone, where pike have been taken of 20 pounds weight. Knaresborough Cattle is fpoken of as far back as the Norman Conqueft, and, from the coins of Claudius and Conftan-, tine found in its vicinity, is thought to be a place of more confiderable antiquity. It is fortified by nature, and much firengthened by art. The laft defence which it made was in the civil wars, against Lord Fairfax, who befieged it; and, after the town had furrendered to his army, fuch was the ftrength of this fortrefs, that it held out a close fiege of 38 days. From this period it was no Jonger gattifoned. Thus for the last century and a half its 12 towers and ftrong walls have been mouldering away. In the view of the town before us, to the left of the Church, we have the principal part of this ruin called the King's Tower; from having been faid to be the place in which Richard II. was im prifoned, after he was depofed. The Church was antiently a rectory, but in 1230 it was united to the prebend of Brickhill in York-minfter; the Chancellor, Lord Loughborough, is its patron, and its prefent value is 300 pounds a-year. The fteeple is of antient date, and fupported on four very beau

tifu arches; it has a mufical peal of 8 * I'ne annexed engraving (plate I) is the first attempt of a gentleman, and is taken from a large painting in ou, merely what the artists call laid in, or sketched, 24 inches by 36.

GENT. MAG. Auguft, 1793.

The forest of Knaresborough is 20 miles in length from E. to W. 8 miles wide. This royal chace was formerly occupied by gangs of villains, or freebooters, who lived on plunder. This town and adjacent country is well defcribed,and with fo much accuracy and fpirit, by Daniel Defoe, who wrote his account no less than 70 years ago, that I fhail beg leave to fubjoin it. I think it is fomewhere faid, by the wits of the age, that Defoe wrote his Tour through England while in the Fleet-prifon. Now it does not, I think, appear, by the Life we have of him lately published, that he was ever in prifon at all; and yet it may be the misfortune of many a worthy man to be in durance; but, in my opinion, no man can fee. Defoe's writings without believing that his talents have provoked the fneers of his conYours, &c.

temporaries.

P.

"Knaresborough, known among foreigners by the name of the Yorkhire Spaw, is a market-town; it ftands upon the River Nyd, and fends two members to parliament.

"In and about the town, and at Harrogate, a fmall village two miles diftant, are no lefs than four different waters; two of the fprings are the most valuable rarities of the kind in England.

"The first is the fweet Spaw, or a vitrioIt was discovered by one Mr. lic water. Slingby, anno 1630; and all physicians acknowledge it to be a very fovereign medi cine in feveral particular diftempers, particularly Dr. Leigh, in his Natural History of Lancashire. The other is the ftinking Spaw, or, according to the learned, the well. This water is clear as cryftal, but fo fetid and naufeous to the fmell, that many are obliged to hold their nofes when they drink it; yet it is a valuable medicine in fcorbutic, hypocon driac, and efpecially in hydropic, distempers.

"The people formerly, for many years, only drank thefe waters, but they now make use of them as a cold bath; and in this manner they must neceffarily be very good for rheumatic pains, paralytic numbneffes, and many other difteinpers.

"Thele baths were heretofore well fre

quented, infomuch that i have been told 2001. per annum rent has been given for a cold bath, and, at prefent, a great deal of company comes to the baths at Harrogate ; but now Scarborough has the vogue.

"We went down a very fte phil! from the town to the river, and croised it upon the tone bridge of two arches. Near one

end

end of the bridge we faw a cell which had been dug out of a folid rock, and is called St. Robert's Chapel. The river is fhallow, but the water is very clear. The stream, which is rapid, is interrupted in its courfe by feveral large ftones, which occafions a very agreeable murmuring. We walked along the fide of the river till we came to the petrifying fpring, or, as it is more commonly called here, the Dropping-well. This fpring, as we were informed, rifes about two miles diftant, and runs most part of the way under ground to this place. The water falls from a rock which is about 16 or 17 feet high; as it bends in a circular projection from the bottom to the top in fuch a manner as that its brow hangs over about 4 or 5 feet, the water does not run down the fide, but drops very fast from 30 or 40 places at the top into a bafon, which it has hollowed in the ground; and every drop creates a mufical kind of tinkling, which is probably in a great degree owing to the concavity of the rock. We faw feveral pieces of mofs which were petrified by this water; and tradition told us. that near this rock the famous Mother Shipton was born. We spent feveral hours hereabouts, and were at laft obliged, hy the coming-on of the night, to leave with the greatest reluctancy a place, where Nature has elegantly difpofed every ingredient The could bestow to form a chearful and pleasant frene. Whilft we walked under a fhade of fpreading trees, and were entertained with the dribbling of the river, we faw the venerable ruins of a large caftle

and a charming intermixture of rocks and trees on the oppofite hill; above it part of the fpire of Kar efborough church made its appearance, and through the trees we had feveral broken views of the town. From the Dropping-vell Sir Henry Slingsby has p'anted walks along the river-fide; and, as the river circles very much, we had, every 10 or 20 yards, a new point of view, which, though compofed of the fame objects, was furprisingly diverfified and varied."

Mr. URBAN, Coventry, July 31. THE E admirers of that beautiful fabrick, St. Michael's church, Coventry, justly styled, by Sir Chriftopher Ween, a mafter-piece of architecture," will be happy to learn, through the medium of your widely-diffeminated Ma gazine, that it is immediately to receive a thorough repair. under the direction of Mr. Potter. One of your frequent correfpondents, David Wells, Eq. deceated, in a letter inferted in vol. LIX. P. 419, pointed out the necelfity of a Speedy reparation of the tower, and recommended a perfon who, at a fmall expence, would fecure it, But that and many private intimations were dif

regarded, till its very dangerous flate became fo obvious, that a meeting was called to confider on the neceffary steps to be taken for properly fecuring the tower, and repairing the churob, the windows and roof of which are much decayed. A committee was chof-n, confifting, among others, of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, Earl of Avlesford, &c. &c.; who, fully fenti. ble of the importance of preferving the matchlefs tower and fpire, and repairing it in the most effectual manner, appointed Mr. Wyatt (under whofe direction the cathedrals of Lichfield and Salisbury have been lately repaired) to examine it; who, in conjunction with Mr. Potter, has pointed out a mode of fecuring it in fuch a manner that this national ornament will probably remain the delight and admiration of the lovers of Gothic architecture for many centuries. The bells, having been found in a great mealure, if not entirely, the caufe of the failure, are to be lowered 30 feet, and placed upon a frame work to be carried up quite diftinct from the tower; in which fituation, it is the opinion of the Archite&is, they will not be injurious.

The fum neceffary to carry into effect the propofed repairs is about 4000l.; which, owing to the want of any fund or church-eftate, and the inability of raifing fuch a fum by a levy upon the parish, whofe poor-rates are at all times high (and now particularly fo), is intended to be collected by fubfcription, to be received by Mers. Little and Woodcock, bankers, Coventry, and Meffes. Samuel Smith, Sons, and Co. Aldermanbury, London.

The nobility and gentry in the county, who, from their feats or in their excurfions, have an opportunity of behoiding this elegant fabrick, may be expect. ed to fubfcribe liberally; and it is hoped thofe, who have a lefs frequent opportunity of admiring it,, will feel the fame inclination to preferve this beautiful

Atructure.

to

H

PHILARCHAISMOS.

MATTHEW i. 11.

"And Jofias begat Jechonias." HE prefent reading of this paffage is fo very antient, being objected by Porphyry in the third century, that there feems no other argument neceffary to prove it the true reading, of pecially as Jerom, who answered the objection of that great enemy of Chrif tianity, do not hint a fuppofition to

the

the contrary. But it does not appear, from the canonical Scriptures, that Jofias had a fon of the name of Jechonias. This has created much difficulty and trouble to commentators; nor can I find that it has yet received a fatisfactory anfwer.

Matthew and Jofephus, before whose time it is faid to have been published.

In the edition of the Roman copy of the Septuagint, by Bofs, it is related, in 1 Efdras,

" Και αναλαβολες οι εκ τε έθνες του Ιεχονίαν υιον Ιωσια, ανέδειξαν βασιλέα an Is to watgos auty, orta ETNÍ οίκοσι τριων.”

The Scriptures, it is true, do not call either of the fons of Jofiah by the name of Jchoniah; but it does not hence I have alfo an edition of the Vulgate, follow, that one of them had not that printed at Paris, by Regnault, 1540, in name. It was no unusual thing among which the reading is the fame, but the Jewish princes to have feveral which, in many other parts, differs Thus Jofiah himfelf has only confiderably from the Roman copy, and four fons mentioned in the book of may therefore be confidered as an addi Chronicles, and three of them are fpotional evidence; nav, it difegrees from

Dames.

ken of in other parts of Scripture by other names. Jehoiakim is called, in 2 Kings, Eliakim-Zedekiah, MattaDiah and Shallum, Jehoabaz.

It is probable then that one of thefe fons had a third name; and we have St. Matthew's authority for the fuppofition, who exprefsly calls the fucceffor of Jofas by the name Jechonias. This was Jetroahaz, called fo in Chron. and, by the prophet Jeremiah, Shallum. And that this Jehoahaz, or Shailum, the fucceffor of Jofiah, was called also Jechoniah, we have the farther teftimony of another author, who wrote very near the time of St. Matthew, which gives his authority a weight which it would not otherwife deferve, and which is still increafed by his having written in the fame language with the Evangelift, This is the writer of the fift book of Eldras, who, in the firft chapter, relates the death of Jolish, and that the people took his fon Jecho nab, and made him king in his ftead. It must be acknowledged, all the copies of Eldras have not this reading. That uted in our tranflation has it not. But, in a difputable paffage of any profane author, that reading which agrees with an inspired apostle has furely the frong. eft claim to acceptance. This first book of Efdras, Dr. Prideaux, in his Connexion, speaks of as very antient—as older than Jofephus, by whom, he fays, he is quoted-probably, therefore, fome years older, if we confider the manner of publishing books in thofe days. Now Josephus is fuppofed to have written about the year of Chrift 75. The time of St. Matthew's writing is not fo well agreed upon. By fome his Golpel is placed to low as 65. So that the book of Eldras may be of the very fame age with the Gofpel, fince there is a period of fo few years between

it ten years in the age of this very Je

chonias.

"Et affumentes, qui erant ex gente, Ie. choniam filium lofiæ, conftituerunt Regem pro lofia patre fuo, eum effet annorum triginta trium."

According to Grotius, fome other copies of the Vulgate make Jehoiachim Jechonias, to which he refers in fup port of that argument; unless we may dare to fuppofe fo great a perfon would adduce in his favour a book which he had not well examined. "In Apocrypho Efdræ priore in Latinis Exemplaribus hic Joacim dicitur Jechonias." Poli Synop. vol. IV. p 14-My Exemplar is an exception to this affertion, and published long before Grorius wrote.

I conclude then that Jofiah had a fon that was called Jechoniah This feems the best answer to this difficult paffage, and removes many other objections, which are involved in every other mode of explaining it. The truth of the prefent readings hereby confirmed. Here is a Jechoniah that has brethren; and by this means the Evangelift is vindicated in afferting that there are fourteen in each feries, which otherwife does not appear true, and which feems to have been obferved for this fole purpose by St. Matthew, that we may diftinguish the two perfonages, whofe fimilar names end the fecond feries and begin the third.

It should feem a weak foundation to build any argument upon an apocryphal book: it may be confidered that there is a great difference between a mere critical remark and a point of doctrine. Though no Proteftant word with to fupport a ductrine on fich grounds, there is not the fime realon against a name uted in an historical narration, where nothing could be f ther from the writer's intention than the ufe here made of it. T. R.

THE

THE ACADEMIC. N° VII. "Regard not rub it is that speaketh, but weigh only what is spoken." HOOKER. To the Senate of Cambridge. LEARNED SIRS,

May 9. EARLY three-fourths of the ftu

Ndents here are defigned for the

Service of Chrift, in the church-eftablishment of this kingdom; and many, perhaps a majority of that clafs, become candidates for the office of Chrif

tian minifters a very few months after they are invested with the title and pri vileges of Bachelor of Arts.

Now, in the general opinion of this country, in the views of thofe ftudents, in the very terms of its first foundation, the univerfity is confidered as an intervening ftep of necellary preparation betwixt the school of youth and the duty of manhood; and, in compliance with the juft and important claims of fuch expectation, what harm is there in the wish, that, betwixt the ftudies of the place and the religion of Chrift, fome fuch connexion were established might fupply the learning and the principle, whofe union must conftitute the pious and beneficent preacher of the Gospel?

as

In a certain fenfe, and with certain reftrictions, it is truly urged, that the reafoning faculty derives an eminent addition to its powers from an intercourse with the demonftrations of

pure

or mixed mathematicks; and yet the

moft zealous idolizer of the science of quantity continued and difcrete, whether ftudied in the abftract, or applied to the pursuit of phyfical truth, will be very cautious in afferting that it bears any afpect peculiarly favourable to the Rudies of clerical preparation.

However that be, a candidate for the clerical office cannot well make the declaration, on which he is admitted to holy orders, except his knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages enable him to read with facility the New Teftament in the original tongue, and to confult the moft approved of thofe commentators whofe refearches have contributed fo much to illuftrate in it what is obfcure, and to explain what is dif ficult.

Now thofe feveral honours, inftituted by the generous bounty of individuals, to excite competition and reward excellence n claffical merit, however admirable their operation may be to call forth and difti guish the first-rate abili

ties in each generation of under-gradu ates, act with a very feeble influence indeed to enfure in every student that respectable degree of classical attainment which, without afpiring to the splendor of fame, might be abundantly adequate to all the purposes of profeffional utility.

The prefent aggregate of this fort of literature, even including many great exceptions to the prevalent neglect, is confeffedly low. But the remedy is not far to feek; and the wishes of many friends to the best interests of the Uni

verfity have long pointed to a public orders of honourable diftin&tion fo well claffical examination, with the various difpofed on the mathematical tripos. Thus of Jebb's plan, which was defigned alfo to comprehend natural law, political history, the fcience of intellect, and the theory of morals, one object, highly advantageous, might immediately be attained; and that would pave the way for a gentle and gradual adoption of the reft, and most happily, perhaps, on a plan not long fince propofed, which left it to the choice of the ftudent, on how many or on what subjects he would rett his claim to a degree, but made it abfolutely neceffary, that he fhould país a tolerable exami nation in fome one or other.

Though no lectures whatever are read on the "True Method of Philo

fophizing," which, from obfervations and experiments on the phænomena of Nature, rifes, by a laborious and wellregulated induction, to the highest axioms, and the genuine theory of moral and phyfical fcience, the fyllabus of the Jackfonian profeffor would fufficiently atteft, that this method has been in part applied to the investigations of chemistry. But the fubject seems of magnitude enough to demand the appointment of a profeflorthip for this fingle purpofe; and an university, which has at different times produced men illuftrious in every walk of knowledge, would, perhaps, establish no weak fecurity for the continuance of that diftinguished honour by the insti tution and fupport of public lectures on "The first Principles of general Philofophy." Even the great Locke profelfes not to give thofe rules, which his forerunner had fo admirably reduced to an art and a fyftem in the "Organom

See the late Strictures on the Difcipline of Cambridge, p. 44.

Novum:"

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