LOND.GAZETTE St. James'sChron. Gazetteer, Ledger Birmingham 2 Bucks-Bury 4 CAMBRIDGE 2 Canterary 3 Coventry Cumberland Derby, Exeter Gloucefter Hereford, Hull Ipfwich IRELAND Leeds 2 LEICESTER 2 Lewes Liverpool 3 Maidftone Manchefter 2 Newcastle 3 Northampton Nottingham Salisbury SCOTLAND Sheffield 2 Sherborne a Shrewsbury Stamford 2 Worcefter For OCTOBER, 1793. CONTAINING 900 Fineold Print-Julian Notary--Tobias Turner? 897 913 Meteorolog. Diaries for Sept. and O. 1793 874 By SYLVANUS URBAN, Gen. Printed by JOHN NICHOLS, at Cic ro's Head, Red-Lion Paffage, Fleet-freet; 1. Barometer dropped from 50 to 33 betwixt nine and twelve P. M. Fall of rain during that time 4-10ths of an inch. When the rain ceafed the redbreast sang. Wind changed to the Eaft, and quite calm.-7. Obferved the clover and after-grafs better upon the road towards Manchester than at Walton.-16. Very hoary dew. Cobwebs upon the bushes.-19. Autumnal tints upon the foliage, &c. give ftrong marks of the season. Leaves begin to drop.-23. Very heavy rain in the night.-25. Mowing wheat at Aintree. Mowing a crop of very fhort beans at Halfall.-27. Reaping oats in the neighbourhood of Clitheroe, Blackburne, &c.-30. Barley and corn out of doors beyond Lancaster. Very calm towards the latter end of the month. Bland and pleasant. Fall of rain this month, 2 inches 8-10ths. Evaporation, 2 inches 2-1oths. METEOROLOGICAL TABLE for October, 1793. Height of Fahrenheit's Thermometer. Height of Fahrenheit's Thermometer. Month 08. 12 56 13 57 14 58 60 49 42 58 16 55 17 54 60 55 56 21 49 22 56 23 51 58 $76 Train 59 58 55 cloudy BEING THE FOURTH NUMBER OF VOL. LXIII. PART II. Mr. URBAN, I 08. 13. XXX HAVE very recently feen a pamphlet, intituled, "The principal Corrections and Additions to the first Edition of Mr. Bofwell's Life of Dr. Johnfon." It furprized me to fee my name very impolitely introduced on the first page. When Mr. Bofwell was collecting materials for his work, he defired me to give him all the affistance in my power. I made every effort I could to oblige him; and, though the anecdotes he had from me were not numerous, yet I covered feveral fheets of paper on the fubject for his use. From infancy I had been accustomed to hear my mother repeat Dr. Johnfon's "Verses on receiving a Sprig of Myrtle from a Lady." She uniformly faid they were written by him when a fchool-boy, and addreffed to Lucy Porter, the first object of his early love, and whofe mother he afterwards married. Confidered as a very juvenile compofition, they are curiously elegant, but can add nothing tol Johnfon's fame if believed to have been written in maturer life. All Mrs. Lucy Porter's acquaintance in Lichfield, where the lived during a period of forty years, knew her to be a plain honeft character, free from vanity, falfehood, and affectation. Of Dr. Johnfon's efteem for her his letters bear frequent teftimony. I have repeatedly heard her fay, that the fift verfes the ever knew that he wrote, after those on the Duck, were lines addreffed to herself, "when he was a Lad," on her having - given him fome myrtle. She used then to repeat the verfes in question. The fact, therefore, that they were originally written for ber, appears to me, on this concurrent testimony, indubitable, It is very likely, however, that Mr. Dr. Johníon was educated by Mrs. Seward's father, the Rev. John Hunter, mafter of the Lichfield free-school. Hector might receive myrtle from a lady in Dr. Johnson's company, and apply to him for verfes on the occafion, and that his poetic Friend, knowing thefe juvenile ftanzas were not in print, and very applicable, might give them to Mr. Hector, without thinking it neceflary to declare their previous existence. Truth was neither directly, nor materially, violated by the fuppreffion of that circum stance. Repeating them to Mrs. Fiozzi, it would be naturally more agreeable to his feelings to mention them as having been given to Mr. Hector, rather than as a teftimony of amorous affection to a Girl, whofe Mother he afterwards married. This was a very flight untruth, indeed, compared with the unquestionably confcious falfehood of his affertion, that "Buchanan was the only man of genius which his country, SCOTLAND! had See Corrections and ever produced." Additions, p. 29. It altonishes me, that the recorded frequency of fimilar falle affertions from the lip of Dr. Johnfon fhould not convince all who read him, that his veracity was of that fpecies which, ftraining at gnats, fwallows CAMELS. Had I been, which I am not, capable of averring a conscious falfehood, there could, in this inftance, be no inducing motive of vanity or intereft. It must be perfectly indifferent to me whether Johnfon's verfes on a myrtle-fprig were addreffed to Lucy Porter, or written for Mr. Hector. Í fpoke fimply and fincerely what had been told me by my Mother, and by Mrs. Lucy Porter. When Mr. Bolwell informed the publick, in his late fupplementary pamphlet, of Mr. Hector's declaration, he ought, in juftice as well as in common politenefs, fince he mentioned my teftimony, to have stated the reasons I gave him for that different evidence. Urban will oblige me by giving this letter a place fn his next Magazine. I remain his friend and fervant, A. SEWARD. Mr. Mr. Mr. URBAN, ОЯ. 21. IN the course of my investigation of the Hiftory of Leicestershire, fo much valuable information has been deduced from the original Regifters of Belvoir Priory and Croxton Abbey, in the poffeffion of the Duke of Rutland; from thofe of Gerendon Abbey and Bredon Prory, communicated in the handfomet manner by the Marquis of Lanfdown and Earl Ferrers from their refpec libraries: and from the curious Rentale" of Leicester Abbey, compiled in 1477 by William Charvte, an induftrious abbot of that houfe; that I am anxious to obtain a fimilar degree of information from the Chartularies or Regifters of other Religious Houfes. And it would be doing an effential fervice to Literature, if Gentlemen poffeffed of fuch authentic documents would have the goodness to communicate them, for the purpose of making fuch general extracts as would-tend to local illustration. The Regifter of Oufton Abbey was in existence fo lately as 1733 (fee p. 897), and thofe of many other Abbevs and Priories are probably either ficredly depofited among the Title-deeds, or accidentally thrown afide among the old Court-rolls, of the prefent owners. Thofe moft likely to contain articles of material use are, the Regifiers of the famous and wealthy Abbey of Laund; the Priories of Hinckley, Bradley, Ulvefcroft, and Kirkby Belers; the Hofpitals of Burton Lizars †, Lutterworth, and Cafle Donington; the Preceptories of Old Dalby, Hether, and Rodeley; and the Collegiate Churches of St. Mary de Caftro, and St. Mary in the Newark, at Leicester. If this enquiry fhould produce the communication of any one of thefe cu. rious regifters, I fhall not, Mr. Urban, have given you this trouble in vain. Yours, &c. J. NICHOLS. of letters, and as Philofophy has been acquiring, ever fince the illuftrious Bacon directed men into the true path of investigating Nature, that which tends to meliorate the human condition; as cutting off a large fource of the most fa tal calamities muft ever gain speedy admiflion into a publication that was formed for the avowed purpose of being a vehicle for all the intelligence that might arife to the Philofopher and Antiquary; and in this place, Mr. Urban, I cannot help paying you a compliment, exacted from my lips by the force of truth, that there has fcarcely been an inftance of a periodical work preferving its celebrity with unfaded luftre for fuch a length of time-Iced hardly add my wishes for its long continuance. As you had the goodnefs to communicate, through the channel of your justly eftet med milcellany, Reflections on premature Death and Interment; Advice to Coroners; and An Addrefs to the Propri etors of Navigable Canals, &c. I am induced, Mr. Urban, to send you the fol. lowing; being perfuaded that it will have a confiderable tendency to awaken that attention to the means of GUARDING HUMAN LIFE, which it is equally my wish to inculcate, as the means of re ftoring it. An important Caution on preferving the Lives of Children. Two inftances have occurred, within the last month, of the lives of children being endangered by falling into wells; but, on being taken out, both of them were most happily restored to life by Mr. Hart, of Lambeth, and Mr. Giles, of Hounflow. I deem it, therefore, an effential part of my duty to apprise all perfons who may have wells in their gar dens, yards, or any place contiguous to their dwellings, of the abfolute neceffity of fecuring them by fuitable coverings, or other proper means. Every father of a family ought to con. fider, that the neglect of this caution may be attended with the lofs of one or more of his own children; and the neglect, which caufes the death of a fellow-crea ture, is a crime which falls little short of murder. As, in criminal juftice, the prevention is much more defirable than the punishment of crimes; fo do I much more caineftly with, by repeated admonitions, to prevent the poffibility of fuch dreadful accidents taking place, than to rest in that, which alone would feem the circle of my duty, barely exciting public atten tion to the means of restoring life. ledged his offence; the officers were likewife ftrenuous in his behalf, in confideration of the former good character of the man, and feeling for the honour of Still the awful fentence hothe corps. It is therefore my ardent hope, that the public will receive this cautionary admonition with that attention it merits, and pay that obfervance to it, which the value of thofe lives it may tend to pre-vered over him, and it was ordered to be ferve must claim from every friend of put in execution the next morning, when humanity. W. HAWES. the piquets of the line were to form in front of the regiment to which the pri foner belonged. As I had not heard of the contrition of the offender, and the Mr. URBAN, T was my original intention to conti Inue my correlpondence from Brighton peculiar requefts in his behalf, I was till the clofe of the campaign; but the more interefting news from the Army, once before Dunkirk, checked the progrefs, and would have inade me think every little attempt at pleafantry very indecent; and I fhould not now have intruded (though our continental profpects are fomewhat brightened), if I did not feel fatisfaction in the tribute I offer to his Grace the Duke of Richmond, whose conduct on a recent affair does credit to a good heart and a found head. Many foldiers belonging to one of the regiments took upon themfelves to inAlict fummary punishment upon fome unfortunate women, and, after carrying them about in tumult, treated them with vengeance. I blush for my profeffion, for I never heard of a more unfoldier like action before-an action too difgraceful to dwell upon. During the rage of their folly, one poor girl took refuge in a ferjeant's tent, out of which they would have dragged her by force; but the man that had the hofpitality to receive her had the courage to arm himfelf in her defence; and an officer very opportunely coming up, they took a foldier of another regiment unluckily prifoner, who was moft imprudently at hand, though not more guilty than the reft-in an inftant he was rescued, and, although afterwards confined, tried by a line court-martial, and fentenced a fevere punishment. The men fill threatened to releafe him it was a period of corfequence, but undoubtedly the refolution of the officers and ftaunch foldiers would have cafily prevented fo undifciplined a proceedng. About this time the Duke returned to camp, and every preparation was made for inflicting punishment, with a determination which the heinoufnefs of the offence demanded. The non-commiffioned officers of the regiment, in the name of the refpective companies, drew up a petition to their Commanding Of ficer, requesting he would intercede with the Duke in favour of their unfortunate comrade, who most humbly acknow afraid, when I faw the Commander in Chief go upon the parade, that he meant to be too merciful; I felt for the difcipline of the fervice. The picquets were compreffed into a fquare of fix deep; the culprit was brought into the centre; the Duke of Richmond made a speech of length to the troops, pointing out every part of their mifconduct in the most feeling language, which had a great effect on all prefent, porticularly on the unfortunate man, whom he forgave, en condition of his immediately afking pardon of the officer and the ferjeant. By fo nicely and fenfibly difcriminating, that he might, from the petitions he had received, preferve difcipline in MERCY; let us hope, that it will not again be abufed. The narrowness of error, or Ariftocratical greatness, vanish, when we contemplate the nobleft attribute in the gift of power; and the action will live, when the heart that had the generofity to perform it is no more. A RAMBLER. N.B. Since writing the above, I have learnt that fome nefarious Jacobin has fent a parcel of pamphlets, directed to the ferjeants who figned the petition, containing the refolutions of a Highland regiment that mutinied the laft war; conjecturing the petition was written more from difatisfaction than conviction. As foon as the non-commiffioned officers had opened the packet, and found what the first book contained, they carried the whole, unread, to their officers; this honourable proceeding deferves to be memorialed in juftice to fuch inestimable foldiers and fubjects, and in confufion to the villain or villains who were thus foiled in their deteftable attempts-BEINGS, who, like the crocodile, are fecret in their ways of deftruction; but, if they dare throw afide the lurking fhield, it is fuch brave fellows as thofe they would by infinuation corrupt, that will be the first to crufa them. |