gine and urge objections against such decision, would imply either. hopeless ignorance or irreclaimable malevolence The above facts, in perfect unison with an ample number of others of equal importance, constitute the indisputable title here insisted on to implicit confidence.'

It is necessary to mention that about 150 pages of the latter part of this work are transcribed from a monthly publication on medical subjects. Why they are here reprinted, we do not exactly comprehend; we are certain that their intrinsic merit did not require their re-publication; and we do not conceive that the original work is either so scarce or likely soon to become so, as to render it desirable to give them to the world under a new form. We admit, indeed, that they very conveniently assist in making up the volume, which by their aid is now advanced to the magnitude of a respectable Octavo. Dr. Kinglake will excuse us if we reming him that there are trade authors as well as trade reviewers, whose example he should studiously avoid.

ART. X. A Selection of Views in the County of Lincoln; comprising the principal Towns and Churches, the Remains of Castles and Religious Houses, and Seats of the Nobility and Gentry; with topographical and historical Accounts of each View. The Engravings by Bartholomew Howlett. Imperial 4to. 5%. 155. 6d. Boards. Miller.

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HIS exhibition of the beauties of Lincolnshire is highly creditable to the artists employed; and by means of the topographical and historical illustrations annexed to each plate, the worknot only excites, but gratifies interest. Lincolnshire appears, indeed, to much advantage in this beautiful volume; and from the number and variety of objects represented in views, and in the vignettes at the bottom of the letter-press accounts, it will be seen that this province furnishes an amusing tour. As an introduction to the details of picturesque scenes, we are presented with a short notice of the county in general. Here it is remarked that,

Lincolnshire is a maritime county, now in the province of Canterbury and diocese of Lincoln, and is included in the midland circuit; it is bounded by Norfolk, the shires of Cambridge, Northampton, and Rutland on the south; by Nottingham and Yorkshire on the west; by the river Humber on the north and north-east; and lastly by the German ocean on the east and sou h-east. It is seventy-seven miles in length from north to south, forty-eight in breadth from east to west, and two hundred and eighty in circumference, containing about 1,800.960 square acres; it is considered as the third largest county in England, and separated into three grand divisions; Lind. say, Kesteven, and Holland;' (each of which possesses an independent jurisdiction, similar to the ridings in the county of York.) • These

'These are subdivided into twenty-seven hundreds and three sokes, containing the city of Lincoln, thirty-one market towns, six hundred and fifty-seven villages, and by the late Population Act, 208,557 inhabitants; it pays nineteen parts (rather a nineteenth part) of the land-tax, and sends twelve members to parliament.'

Mr. Howlett begins with the division of Lindsay, which is the most considerable of the three, occupying more than a million of square acres; and he has introduced his views of towns, churches, antient edifices, and modern mansions, with an appropriate emblematical vignette.

The subjects of the plates are Lincoln and Lincoln Cathedral; Louth and Louth Church; Barton; Stow Church; Grimsby Church; Torksey Castle; Thornton Abbey ; Tattershall Castle; Mausoleum at Brocklesby; Old Hall, at Gainsborough; Redbourne; Revesby Abbey; Summer Castle;, Norton Place; Sudbrooke Holme; Willingham House; Langton Hall; and Burwell Park.

In the division of Kesteven, are views of Stamford, Grantham, and Sleaford, with a distinct plate of the churches belonging to each; Temple Bruer; Somerton Castle; Grimsthorpe Castle; Oak in Bowthorp Park; Belvoir Castle; Norton; Belton House; Denton House; Haverholme Priory; Coleby Hall; Stoke Rochford; Harlaxton Manor-House; and Little Paunton.

The division of Holland gives only four subjects; Boston, Boston Church, Kirton Church, and Croyland Abbey. The antient and the present state of this last and smallest division of the county of Lincoln are thus contrasted:

Holland appears formerly to have been in a forlorn state; not subject to the ravages of the sea alone, it was frequently inundated by the upland waters. Destitute of ample drainage, the land became a deposit for stagnant pools, the exhalations of which loaded the atmos. phere with pestiferous mists; hence the writers of former times des cribed this province as unfit for human existence.

Compared with the above statement, the improvements made in the last thirty-five years of the eighteenth century will appear to be the effect of magic. Drainage, embankments, enclosures, industry, and laudable emulation, have procured stability for the soil, (in its nature rich as the Delta of Egypt,) and salubrity to the air of North Holland.'

Curious local circumstances are mentioned in the accounts; viz. that Burwell park was the birth place of Sarah, wife of the great Duke of Marlborough; and that Woolsthorpe in the vale of Grantham had the honour of giving birth to the great Newton.

The

The plates are well executed, in stroke engravings, from drawings by various artists, and the whole is intitled to considerable praise.

ART. XI. Collections for the History of the Town and Soke of Grantham. Containing authentic Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton, now first published from the original MSS. in the Possession of the Earl of Portsmouth. By Edmund Turnor, F.R.S. F.A.S. Imperial 4to. pp. 200. Il. 8s. Boards. Miller.

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MONG our neighbours, many valuable histories have appeared which bear the modest name of Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire, &c. The title of the present volume may be regarded as a designation of the same unassuming nature: but though the contents of these pages are merely collections, yet they are so complete and so well arranged, that most persons, we believe, who feel an interest in the subject, would not consent to exchange these raw materials (if we may be allowed to use the expression) for a laboured fabric. Indeed, these undertakings rarely admit of any thing like finish; and perhaps the less it is attempted the more will the performance indicate good taste and sound judgment.

The materials here presented to us are such as usually enter into topographical descriptions. The author is very particular with respect to all that relates to religious edifices, of which the antiquity, present state, dimensions, style of architecture, monuments, inscriptions, patrons, incumbents, and revenue, are minutely stated; while other public buildings and adminis trative institutions are not overlooked. A map, two vignettes, and several neat engravings, one of them a sketch of the house in which the great Newton was born, embellish and enhance the value of this volume. Being nearly connected in subject. with Mr. Howlett's Views, (see the preceding article,) it is printed uniformly with that work, and the two may be conveniently bound together in one.

The word soke is only metaphorically applied to territory ; and in strictness it means the body of homagers which the territory contains. With regard to the Roman antiquities in this division, Mr. Turnor observes:

"All about Great Paunton was (according to Dr. Stukeley) much inhabited by the Romans, Kirk Stoke particularly, where great quan. titics of antiques have been found, likewise at Stroxton. For air, the country hereabouts has always, and deservedly, been reckoned the Montpelier of England; for water, wood, heath, and prospect, it may be thought the Frescati." The Ermine-street, or great Roman road

described

described in the map, was formed on one of the ancient British trackIt throws off a ways from the coast of Sussex to the Humber. westerly branch at the 96th mile-stone; which, before the introduction of turnpikes, was the old London Drift road, forming the boundary of the counties of Leicester and Lincoln for 10 miles; and proceeding in a westerly direction to the "Ad Pontem" of the Itineraries, (Southwell,) (whilst the Drift road continues nearly in a straight line, and joins the London road at Bennington.) This and the principal branch of the Ermine-street were intersected by the British Salt-way, which ran from the salt mines at Droitwich in Worcestershire to the coast of Lincolnshire; entered Lincolnshire not far from Saltby, crossed the Witham at Salter's Ford, near to the town ør Roman station at Ponton. Besides the barrows, the dykes, the ramparts called King Lud's Intrenchments on Saltby Heath, noticed in Nichols's History of Leicestershire, (page 305,) where Roman coins have been found, are five barrows on the Lincolnshire side in Woolsthorpe lordship, and two in the adjoining parish of Stainby, all within a little distance of this branch of the Ermine-street. A Roman pavement also not far off, near Denton, and the Roman ruins near Stoke, mentioned in Nichols, (p. 290,) &c. &c.'

It is remarked by the author in reference to the sources whence his volume has been compiled, that

His materials, interesting as they might be to persons connected with the districts of which they treat, would not have been considered of sufficient public importance, had it not been for the access recently obtained to the MSS. which came into the possession of the Earl of Portsmouth from his Lordship's grandmother, Catharine Viscountess Lymington, daughter and sole heir of John Conduitt, Esq. by Catherine Barton, niece of Sir Isaac Newton. This lady, educated at Sir Isaac's expense, and who lived with him near twenty years, before and after her marriage with Mr. Conduitt, was cele brated for her wit and beauty; and was much noticed for her engaging manners by the Earl of Halifax, who made her a considerable bequest at his death.

The MSS. at Hurtsbourn Park are various; the biographical part of them consists chiefly of pocket-books and memorandums in Sir Isaac's hand writing; and the information obtained by Mr. Con duitt for the purpose of writing his life. For the judgment in selecting, and perseverance in transcribing the papers respecting this great man, the editor is obliged to the Rev. John Garnett, preben. dary of Winchester and rector of Wallop, whose unremitting kindness on this occasion cannot be sufficiently acknowledged.'

Though other divisions of this soke have produced Ministers, Lords, and Judges, we shall pass over them and hasten to the hamlet of Woolsthorpe; to which belongs the distinction of giving birth to that boast of his country, the pride of the seventeenth century, and (may we not add?) the most dis tinguished among the sons of men, Sir Isaac Newton:

• Wool

Woolsthorpe, in ancient writings Wullesthorp, South Wellsthorpe, a hamlet to Colsterworth, is situate about half a mile to the west of Colsterworth, in a beautiful little valley, in which are copious wells of pure spring water. The addition of south Wellsthorpe, formerly used, was probably in contradistinction to Woolsthorpe, near Belvoir. The hamlet consists of the manor-house, two or three small farm-houses, and some thatched cottages; one of which was formerly a chapel of ease to Colsterworth; it is forty-three feet long.'

Since all that relates to Newton has pre-eminent interest, we shall transcribe the history here given of the revolutions experienced by the little territory which became his patrimony:

The Manor, and Family of Newton.

The Archbishop of York had s in Colstwrde, three carucates of land at geld. There is land at three carucates. The soke is in the Schillintune. There four sockmen and four villeins had two carucates, and one hundred and twenty-two acres of wood with pasturage in different parts of it.

In 1320, temp Edward III. William de Mortuomari did homage for half a knight's fee in Wullesthorp and Lopinthorp

The family of Sleaford of Woolsthorpe quartered the arms of Mortimer of Wolstrop, and was lineally descended from Sir Edward Sleaford of Sleaford.

28 Hen. VI. 1450. The manor of Woolsthorpe, called Mortimer's, belonged to Pigot, who left it to his wife, upon whose demise it passed, in 1474, to Richard Thimbleby of Corby, Esq. and in succession to Sir John and Sir Richard Thimbleby, Knights. In 1562, Richard Thimbleby, Esq. sold the manor to Gilbert Bury of Ashwell, co. Rutland, Esq. In 1614, Robert Underwood purchased the manor of Henry Bury, and in 1623 demised the same to Robert Newton of Woolsthorpe. Sir Isaac Newton, his grandson, came into possession of the family estate here, and at Sewstern, in 1663; for in 650 James Ayscough, Gent. is stated to be guardian to Isaac Newton, lord of the manor, under age.

John Newton, the heir at law, succeeded to the manor and estates, after the death of Sir Isaac in 1727, and sold them to Ed. mund Turnor of Stoke Rochford, Esq. in 1732.2

This Mr. Turnor we presume to have been an ancestor of the author of the present collections.-The above account is followed by the Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton, sent by Mr. Conduitt to M. Fontenelle, in 1727: but Mr. Conduitt is said to have been by no means satisfied with the use made of these papers by that gentleman in his celebrated eloge. As far as we are able to call to recollection that fine performance, however, we are not aware that it furnishes any just ground for this dissatisfaction. It only drops a few minute circumstances, which it would have been incongruous to insert in an address to a

foreign