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Mr. URBAN,

Notts, Sept. 20.
AVING feen in your entertaining

in Derbyshire by your ingenious corre-
fpondent J. P. Malcolm, I imagine the
inclofed drawing of fome very fingular
rocks near Matlock Bath (fee plate II.)
may be acceptable to many of your
readers.

The traveller who wishes to explore
this curious country muft quit the trod-
den path, climb the cragged cliff, and
penetrate the dark recefs; he will there
find ample recompence for his trouble.

The rocks here reprefented are upon the brow of the hill, directly behind Mafon's bath, but the ground is inclofed with ftone walls, which, together with the bushes and brambles that furround the rocks, make the approach rather difficult.

This curious group of rocks evidently appears to have been feparated by fome violent convulfion in Nature, which has alfo formed several chafms: the projection of the little rock over the great one is very remarkable. From this fpot you command a very extenfive and pleating view, I think preterable to any in the neighbourhood of Matlock.

It may be thought extraordinary, that no path has been made from the Hallhoufe to this romantic fpot; but, to take off this appearance of neglect in Mr. Mafon, who is as attentive to the amufement as he is to the accommoda

tion of his numerous guests, it is neceffary to fay, that the ground behind the houfe is not his property.

Yours, &c.

H. ROOKE.

P.S. The inclofed feal (plate III. fig. 6) was found in widening the lake within the park of Welbeck, in the beginning of the year 1793. H. R.

Mr. URBAN,

Sept. 24.

WE read, in Dr. John's Lives

of the Poets, the following account of Akende:

"Being now to live by his profeffion, he first commenced physician at Northampton, where Dr. Stonehoue then practifed with fuch reputation and fuccefs that a stranger was not likely to gain ground upon him. Akenfice tried the conteft for a while; and, having deafened the place with clamours for Liberty, removed to Hampstead."

The fact, Mr. Urban, is, that this conteft for the phyfical bufinefs at Northampton, though unfuccefsful on the part of Akenfide, had for fome time been fupported by him with extraordi

nary violence. I am warranted, by manufcripts in my poffeffion, when I ftruggle of medical hoftilities, but every art and every exertion, perfonal abufe, and private infinuation, had been used, to ufurp Dr. Stonehoufe's profeffional emoluments, and ouft him from his eftablished fettlement. Yet, on Akenfide's removal from that place to HampRead, the recommendatory letter, a copy of which I fend you, was generoufly written in his favour by his worthy rival, as an introduction for him to a gentleman of confequence in the neighbourhood of his new abode. The letter does not elucidate any new anecdote in the life of the Poet; but it breathes fuch a candid and forgiving fpirit, fo honourable to the feelings of its author, that Dr. Johnfon, who de lighted in recording inftances of charity and virtue, would, I am perfuaded, had it been in his poffeffion, have been the willing inftrument of tranfmiting it to the publick. Will you, Mr. Urban, be his fubfiitute for this purpose?

"DEAR SIR,

"The gentleman who prefents you with this is Dr. Akenfide, a brother phylician, whofe merit, as a man of refined fenfe and elegance of tafte, is too well known by lus writings (The Pleafures of the Imagination, &c.) to need any other teftimonial; and, I dare fay, from what you already know of them, you will naturally conclude, without any praife of mine, that fuch a man must be

proportionably diftinguished in his own peculiar profethon.

"I take this opportunity of introducing him to the honour of your acquaintance; and make no doubt you will receive him as a gentleman, whom for his character and abi Itis I much efteem, and whofe near neighbourhood, in any place where there had been room for us both, I should have regarded as an addition to my happinefs. I am, &c."

On the fubject of Akenfide, let me enquire, whether any, or what, fragments of poetry were found after his decease? I have proof, though it has never been mentioned to the world, that he had made fome progrefs in an Epic poem, the plan of which I know not; the title of it was TIMOLEON. This would, in my opinion, if completed, have been a greater acceffion to literature than Pope's intended BRUTUS. The bold and foaring genius, the unconfined and diffutive style, of Akenfide, were furely better adapted for an Epic poem than the chaftifed judgement and monotonous melody of our great

didactic

didactic and elegiac poet, Pope. It is perhaps worthy of remark, that two of our first-rate criticks, Jobafon and Warton, have given fuch different opinions on the lyrical powers of Akenfide. The author of the " Effay on the Life and Genius of Pope" fpeaks of the odes of Akenfide as the works of a chafte ear and a glowing imagination; Johnfon, who gives hin fufficient praife for his blank verfe, is of opinion, "that, whenever he lays his ill-fated hand upon his barp, his wonted powers forfake him." But, unless I could add more to the ftock of general information, perhaps I have troubled you too long. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

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INDAGATOR.

08. 1.

N answer to the enquiry of your "Amicus" (vol. LXII. p. 17), upon the subject of shares of lottery tick. ets, I will venture to fay, though I ne ver read a lottery a&,"that the purchafers of them have no fecurity but the ability and integrity of the office-keeper where they were fold, notwithstanding they are all ftamped by the authority of Government; and that it is bis bufinefs, and his alone, to pay the fhares of prizes." As to "the ufe of Government ftamping fhares," I will inform your correspondent of one part cular in which it is ufetul, namely, by p eventing an office-keeper from dividing a ticket into more than four fourths, eight eighths, and fixteen fixteenths. But, were the Bank to refufe delivering the ticket to the proprietor till he produced all the fhares he had divided it into," as your correfpondent fuppofes, a very great and ferious inconvenience might thence arife to the office-keepers, as it might very poffibly happen, that one or more of the fortunate mares might not be tendered to him till long after the time he had fixed for the payment of them, and he would therefore be obliged to advance the money out of his own pocket, not being able to receive it from the Bank for want of fome of the thares. I admire your correspondent's loyalty in "not fuppofing that Government would countenance a deception;" but, not to mention the opening of offices all over England, inviting perions to regifter thei: qualifications to kill game, without enquing whether they be poffelled of any, I fhall only fay, that it is a melancholy fact, too notorious to be refuted, that one lottery in thete umes does more mifchief than all the Procla

mations for the fuppreffion of irreligion and profaneness in the courfe of a century have done good.

You have given us a curious anecdote, LXII. 18, of aMay-pole being erected in Drury-lane by a fmith, who was father to the Dutchefs of Albemarle. The May-pole I never remember having heard of; but I have in my poffeffion Minutes of a Trial upon an Action of Trefpafs between William Sherwin, Plaintiff, and Sir Walter Clarges, Baronet, and others, Defendants, at the King's Bench Bar at Westminster, 15 Nov. 1700. The plaintiff, as heir and reprefentative of Thomas Monk, efq. elder brother of George, Duke of Albemarle, claimed the manor of Sutton, in co. York, and other lands in Newton, Eaton Bridge, and Shipton, as heir at law to the faid duke, against the defendant, devisee under the will of Duke Chriftopher, his only child, who died in 1688, S. P. Upon this trial fome very curious particulars came our refpecting the family of Anne, wife of George, created Duke of Albemarle. It appeared that he was daughter of John Clarges, a farrier, in the Savoy, and farrier to Colonel Monk. In 1632, the was married in the church of Sr. Laurence Pountney to Thomas Ratford, fon of Thomas Ratford, late a farrier, fervant to Prince Charles, and refident in the Mews, She had a daughter, who was born in 1634, and died in 1638. Her husband and the "lived at the Three Spanith Giplies in the New Exch.nge, and fold wath-balls, powder, gloves, and fuch things, and the taught girls plain-work. About 1647, the, being a fempitress to Col. Monk, used to carry hum linen.” In 1648, her father and mother died. In 1649, the and her husband "fell out, and parted." But no certificate from any parish Re-. guter appears reciting his burial. In 1652, fhe was married in the church of St. George, Southwark, to "General George Monk;" and, in the following year, was delivered of a fon, Chriftopher (afterward the fecond and laft Duke of Albemarle abovementioned), who was fuckled by Honour Mills, who fold apples, herbs, oifters, &c." One of the plaintiff's witnetles fwore, that, "a little before the ficknets, Themas Ratford demanded and received of him the fum of twenty thillings, that his wife faw Ratford again after the fickness, and a fecond time after the Duke and Dutchels of Albemarle were

dead,

dead." A woman fwore, that the faw him on "the day his wife (then called Dutchess of Albemarle) was put into her coffin, which was after the death of the Duke," her fecond hufband, who died 3 Jan. 1669-70. And a third witnefs (wore, that he faw Ratford about July 1660. In oppofition to this evi-. dence it was alleged, that "all along, during the lives of Duke George and Duke Chriftopher, this matter was never queftioned" that the latter was univerfally received as only fon of the former —and that “this matter had been thrice before tried at the bar of the King's Bench, and the defendant had had three verdicts." A witnefs fwore, that he owed Ratford five or fix pounds,

which he had never demanded. And a man, who had "married a coufin of the Duke of Albemarle, had been told by his wife, that Ratford died five or fix years before the Duke married." Lord Chief Juftice Holt told the jury, "If you are certain that Duke Chriftopher was born while Thomas Ratford was living, you muft find for the plaintiff. If you believe he was born after Ratford was dead, or that nothing appears what became of him after Duke George married his wife, you must find for the defendant." A verdict was given for the defendant, who was only fon to Sir Thomas Clarges, knt. brother to the illuftrious dutchefs in queftion, was created a baronet Oober 30, 1674, and was ancestor to the baronets of his name. Yours, &c. E.

Mr. URBAN,

Sept. 18.

argument is fimply this, that, whereas the tranflator of the Bible is a Roman Catholic clergyman, the trauslation of the Ververt, on the other hand, contains a pointed fatire upon the doctrine of indulgences, praying for the dead, and other tenets of the Church of Rome; and this without any authority for fo doing from the original poem. But, if this mode of reafoning be admitted, it is plain we muft equally deny that the different anfwers which have appeared to the encyclical letters of the fuperiors of the Roman Catholic clergy, and which are all in the fame ftrain with the tranflation of the Ververt; the Norfolk Tale, in which praying to faints is ridiculed, and clerical celibacy is practi cally condemned; the Macaronic Ode, in which the author acknowledges himfelf to have joined in the deliberations and votes of the Diffenters; and many other works, which bear intrinfic, as well as extrinfic, evidence of the workmanfhip of the faid writer; are in fact to be afcribed to the LL.D. of Aberdeen. I may add, that, though all the abovementioned pieces have been published without a name, yet in one of them, namely, the Norfolk Tale, the author claims to himself the compofition of the celebrated Carmen Seculare, which was publifhed, and prefented to the French National Affembly, under the name of Dr. Geddes, and for which he is understood to have received the public mark of their thanks. Leiceftrenfis will not fail to recolle& that, in this very ode, amongst other very fingular fentiments for a Roman Catholic cler

ONE advantage which your widely-gyman to utter, he very humourously

difffed Repofitory holds our to the publick is, that it affords literary acquaintances an opportunity of taking each other by the button, and exchanging their opinions, from the moft diftant parts of the fland, and even of the globe. I avail myfelf of this advantage in order to difcufs with your correfpondent Leicefirenfis (fee p. 714) a queftion, which appears to be of great concern to him, and which is not uninteresting to the publick.

In my opinion this gentleman calls in queftion, upon very flight grounds, a fact which is admitted by the publick, and is well known to Dr. Geddes's friends, and to the Literati of Oxford in general, namely, that the late tranflation of Greffet's Ververt, and that of the Bible, a volume of which has just appeared, are by the fame hand. His

congratulates the clergy of France on the confifcation of all ecclefiaftical property, which had then taken place in their country. But, what puts this matter beyond all doubt, is the repeated public declaration of the Doctor himfelf, that he is no Roman Catholick, and the account which he has given of himfelf in a letter to you, Mr. Urban, vol. LIX. p. 417, in which he pro

felles himself to be "neither Protellant nor Catholick, but both between." In the mean time, I am well affured that he is not acknowledged as a brother by the Roman Catholicks, the heads of whom have publifhed the feveret cenfures against him; whilft, if we may judge by his late reception at Oxford, he does not feem to meet with more countenance from the moft refpectable part of Protefants.

Should

Should Leiceftrenfis afk, why Dr. G. should deny himself the honour of the ingenious compofition under confideration in cafe he has any title to it? I anfwer, that two feveral reafons have been affigned for this. One is, that our tranflator having repeatedly pledged himself to bestow the greatest and the moft unrivalled application to the more than mortal work he has undertaken, there might be reafon to fear, if his name were to appear to all the odes, tales, effiys, fpeeches, and other compofitions of the fame nature, in profe and in verfe, that flow from his pen on every temporary fubject, left the prejudiced or the ignorant part of the pubJick might imagine they could account for almost all the leisure-time during which they lofe fight of the Doctor. The other reafon is, that probably our modern Jerom may suppose, that fuch Jight compofitions as thofe abovementioned do not become the gravity of a tranflator and reftorer of the Sacred Text. Indeed, I think it very likely that the former reafon may weigh with the Doctor. But no man of Oxford, who faw this merry gentleman mounted on the poles behind the Queen of the May this fummer at Marfden fair, or who heard his fubfequent declarations concerning his fondnels for innocent amufement, will fuppofe that the latter motive ever had the fmalleft influence over him.

I cannot difmifs this topick without faying one word upon the "Addrefs to the Publick concerning the new Tranf lation of the Bible" with which Dr. Geddes has juft now favoured it; the profeffed obj & of which is to do away thofe prejudices against the author's fuppofed religious and political errors, which feem to militate again the general reception of his work. It is written with the ufual fpirit of the Doctor; but, in my opinion, it betrays a want of judgement not rarely to be met with in men of quick apprehenfions. Our author may well urge that, if he were

as arch an heretick as ever dogmatized," or if his political creed were ever fo obnoxious, he might fill be capable of giving a good tranflation of the Bible." For he ought, by this time, to know human-nature well enough to be convinced, that to attack the favourite opinions of mankind is not the way to draw money out of their pockets. It may be that the Door's noble patron may be content to defcend from the

elevated ftation to which he was born' and to take his flation in fociety according to his own individual talents and exertions; but most certainly the generality of our noble families will not be obliged to Dr. Geddes for teaching, that " hereditary nobility is a Gothic abfurd inftitution," p. 18, any more than the churchmen will think themfelves indebted to him for maintaining that "church establishments have been a continual fource of evils both to Church and State," p. 21. On the other hand, the Doctor must be out of his wits to think of fouthing the Roman Catholicks whilft he rejects their judge of controverfies, viz, a living authority (p. 1), and maintains what they confider as downright herefy, namely, that "the Pope is not, by divine right, fuperior to any other bishop, nor any bifhop, by divine right, fuperior to myfelf," he says, "who am only a fimple undignified prieft," p. 21." Nor can I think him a whit more wife, when, anxious for the public fupport, he has the confidence to tell them, at the prefent hour, that their "high tide of fictitious loyalty, which bore every thing down before it, is ready to be fwallowed up in the dark abyfs whence it iffued," p. 17. This language is certainly ill calculated to ferve the Doctor's defign, except amongst one, and that not a very biblical, clafs of modern Englishmen; and forces us to recollect, what we wish otherwife to forget, the glowing fpirit, darting through the poverty and tamenels of the verfe, with which, three years ago, our Caledonian Doctor of the Laws defcribed the French Revolution as a fecond golden age, and as the return of Justice upon earth at the fame time, warning all the kings and the tyrants of the univerfe to tremble at the fight of what had been done in France, and calling upon Britons in particular to emulate the glorious example which the French had fet them. I cannot refill the temptation of quoting the verfes I refer to: "Canto Saturni repetita regna, Et Themia terris cano reftitutam, et Aurea fæcla.

Audeant omnes timeantque reges,

Totius terræ timeant tyranni:
Palleat quicunque imitatur illes
Nomine quovis.
"Albion! fed te potiore plaufu
Liberos Gallos decet æmulari.
Amulans Gallos tibi gratularis,

Terra Britanna."

For

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