counties, many of which, within these few years, have been done by actual survey, and on a large size and scale, have given the compiler of this work opportunity to add above a thousand villages omitted by Mr Adams; and the extraordinary pains he has been at, in the frequent inspection of these useful maps, and the great number of books he has diligently and repeatedly consulted for this purpose, besides information from correspondents in different parts of the king. dom, have enabled him to bring this performance to a degree of perfection beyond his most sanguine hopes " Mr Whatley dedicates his work to the Right Hon. Arthur Onslow, speaker of the House of Commons, and certainly appears to have possessed very valuable materials. The work is executed with great accuracy; and is evidently the basis of the several gazetteers which have since been published as original compositions. Most of them indeed (even the most recent) are mere copies of Mr. Whatley's book.

III. A large quantity of information, more authentic than any to be procured from the several works already mentioned, has been afforded by the returns to the several parliamentary inquiries of 1776 and 1786 respecting the poor's rate; that of 1801 for enumerating the population; and finally, a third enquiry respecting the poor and poor's rate in 1803.

To the accident of the author's employment in the office, where these last returns were arranged, may indeed be ascribed the production of the work now offered to the public. The difficulty and frequent delay which occurred in that office from the want of some general directory, at once led him to perceive, that an amended Index Villaris was become necessary, and enabled him by experience to execute it in a manner satisfactory to himself.

In explanation of the information to be expected, the author requests his readers to observe, that (1) the orthography of every name has been determined with the utmost attention; (2) after the name appears the hundred or subdivision, and county, in which the place is situate; (3) if a parish, the valuation in the King's books, and other ecclesiastical information, is next given; (4) then the population; () poor's rate: (6) and the distance and bearing of cach place from the nearest post-office town, from the county town, or the metropolis.

Other information, applicable only to places of some importance, is then given in the following order; (7) markets and fairs; (8) members of parliament and corporations; (9) free-schools; (10) Petty sessions and assizes, Finally, (11) is given miscellaneous information of monastic foundations, and other matters of local history, not reducible to any head of the above classification.

It is observed by Mr. Carlisle that implicit reliance must not be placed on the statements which he has given from Mr. Bacon's Liber Regis, published in 1786, respecting the patrons of ecclesiastical benefices; and we have reason to add that this part of the work is defective. On the subject of the population of England, Mr. C. affords the most satisfactory view, and enables us to compare one town with another in this respect. According to the returns made in 1801, London, with

in and without the walls, contained a population of 128,920. -Westminster, (city and liberty,) 153,591;-and Southwark, 57,515 making in all, 340,026: but this sum must not be supposed to include one half of the inhabitants forming the great mass which is generally understood when we speak of the population of the British capital, including suburbs and appendages. After London, the number of inhabitants in our great towns follows in this order: Liverpool, 77,653; Manchester, 70,409; Birmingham, 60,822; Leeds, 53, 62; Bristol, 40,814; Norwich, 36,832; Newcastle, 28,366; Hull, 22,161; Exeter, 17,389; York, 16,846; Plymouth, 16,040; Coventry, 16,034; Chester, 14,977; Sheffield, 13,314; Oxford, 11,749, Derby, 10.832; Warrington, 10,567; Bath, 10,127; Lynn, 10,096; Cambridge, 10,087; Ipswich, 9620; Carlisle, 9521; Lancaster, 9030; Canterbury, 9000, &c.

As a specimen of the manner in which this dictionary is executed, we shall select one article:

DUNMOW, GREAT, in the hund. of Dunmow, Co. of ESSEX: a V. valued in the King's books at 181. 13s. 4d.: Patron, the Bishop of London: Church ded. to St. Mary. The resident popu lation of this parish, in 1801, was 1828. The money raised by the parish rates, in 1803, was 15711. os. Id., at 9s. in the pound, It is 12 m. NN W. from Chelmsford, and 37 m. N.E. b. N. from London. The market is on Saturday. The fairs are on the 6th May, and 8th November. It was incorporated 2° and 3° Philip and Mary; and is governed by a Bailiff, and 12 Burgesses, The petty sessions for Dunmow Division are holden here. It is within the Duchy of Lancaster.

DUNMOW, LITTLE, in the hund. of Dunmow, Co. of ESSEX: a Curacy, (not charged,) of the certified value of 201. os od: Patron, J Hallet, Esq.: Church ded. to St. Mary. The resident population of this parish, in 1801, was 272. The money raised by the parish rates in 1803, was 2721. 16s. od., at 5s. 6d. in the pound. It is 2 m. E.S E. from great Dunmow. "The Lady Juga,

sister to Ralph Baynard, built here, A D. 1104, a church to the Honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, wherein her son Jeffry, two years after, placed Canons, who shortly after observed the rule of St. Austin. This priory consisted of a Prior, and ten or eleven religious, whose maintenance was valued, 26 Hen. VIII., at 150l. 38. 4d. per ann Dugd.; 1731. 2s. 4d. Speed. The site was granted, 28 Hen. VIII., to Robert Earl of Essex."-Tanner's Not Mon.- Robert Fitz-Walter, Lord of Woodham, and fa, mous in the tyme of King Henry the Thyrd, betooke himself at his latter tyme to prayer, gave great and bountifull almes to the poore, kept great hospitality, and re-edified the decayed priory of Dunmow, which one Juga a devout and religious woman, being his ancestor, had buylded. In which priory arose a custome, begun and institu ted either by him or some of his successors, that he, which repenteth For instance, Deptford, 17,548.-Islington, 10,212, Marybone, 63,982, &c.

him

him not of his marriage, sleeping or waking, in a yeere and a day, may lawfully goe to Dunmowe and fetch a gammon of bacon. This custome continued until the dissolution of the howses, when other abbyes were suppressed, in the tyme of King Henry the Eighth, and the bacon was delyvered with such solemnity and triumph as they of the priory and townsmen could make. The party or pylgrim for bacon was to take his oath before the prior, the convent, and the whole towne, humbly acknowledging in the church-yard upon two hard poynted stones; which stones, as they say, remayne to be seene there to this day His oath being ministered with a long process and solemne singing over him all the whyle, he was afterward taken up and carryed upon mens shoulders, first about the priory church-yard, and after through the towne, with all the Fryars and bretheren, and all the townes folk, young and old, following him with shouts and aclamations, with his bacon borne before him, and soe was he with his bacon sent to his owne hoame. Of which bacon some had a gammon, and some a flitch: and it appeareth by the records of the house, that three severall at three severall tymes had the one or the other."

The records are these:

"Memorandum, That one Stephen Samuell, of Little Aston, in the county of Essex, husbandman, came to the priory of Dunmowe on our Lady-day in Lent, in the 7 yeere of King Edward the Fourth, and requyred a gammon of bacon, and was sworne before Roger Rulcot then Pryor, and the convent of this place; as also be fore a multitude of our neighbours: and there was delivered to him a gammon of bacon”. &c.

THE OATH.

"You shall sweare by custome of confession,
If ever you made nuptiall transgression,
Be you eyther marryed man or wyfe,
By howsehold brawles or contentious strife,
Or otherwise at bed, or at board
Offend each other in deed or word:
Or synce the parish Clarck sayd Amen,
You wished yourselves unmarried agen;
Or in a twelve-month's tyme and a day
Repented not in thought any mannere of way;
But continued true and just in desire,
As when you joyn'd hands in the holy quyer:
If to these conditions, without all feare,
Of your own accord you will freely sweare,
You shall of our bacon of Dunmowe receive,

And bear it from hence with love and good leave.
For this is our custome of Dunmowe well known,

Though the pastyme be ours, the bacon's your owne."
Hearne's Edit. of Leland's Itin. vol. 3. p. 5.

Since the suppression of the priory, this custom is still kept up, and the ceremony is performed at a Court-Baron for this manor, by the steward.". Morant's Essex, pl. 2. p.430.'

Ee 3

In

In a future editisn, we would recommend it to Mr. C. to be more attentive in making double references, without which the knowlege sought is often not found: thus he should have inserted the word Hull, and there have referred us to Kingston on Hull.

Before we conclude, it is proper to inform the reader that this dictionary is limited, strictly speaking, to English topography; and that Mr. Carlisle has it in contemplation to produce a third volume, which is intended to include Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the Islands in the British seas. . We sincerely wish that he may receive that flattering encouragement, which will induce him to persevere to the full accomplishment of his undertaking.

ART. XV. Review of the Affairs of India, from the Year 1798 to the Year 1806; comprehending a summary Account of the principal Transactions during that eventful Period. 8vo. pp. 140. 38. Cadell and Davies. 1807.

TH

THE object of this tract is to vindicate and extol the measures pursued by the Marquis Wellesley during his administration. in India. On one point we fully agree with the writer, viz. on the claim which he prefers in behalf of this noble person, for founding the seminary at Calcutta ; the object of which is here said to have been

To provide for the mental improvement, the moral instruction, of the highly-destined youth, who are to be the guardians of the happiness and prosperity of so many millions of our fellow creatures, as British India contains. Instruction, which is to qualify them to administer with wisdom and equity the functions of a complicated and extensive government, who are to be the Judges of the Land, Financiers of the Revenue, Directors of the Commerce, and the Managers of the internal policy and foreign relations of the state. With the magnitude of this most serious and interesting subject, the GovernorGeneral seems to have been deeply impressed. He beheld with pity and with pain the destitute condition of those youths who annually arrived from Europe, under the denomination of writers; usually boys from fifteen to seventeen years of age, whose stock of knowledge was confined to the rules of vulgar arithmetic, or, perhaps, a trite acquaintance with the rudiments of classical learning. Thus imperfectly grounded in learning of any sort, these embryo statesmen were thrown on the shores of India to obtain local information how they could; and to acquire a knowlege of the language, religion, laws, and manners of the people they were to govern, if they chose to take the trouble to apply, and seek for themselves channels of instruction, which their own government did not afford.'

This measure, at once splendid, politic, and benignant, ought to have survived the other labours of the noble Marquis: but it was one of the first which the contracted spirit of Leadenhall street condemned. Had there been less of change and imbecility

imbecility in our national councils, Government might have stepped in, and arrested the Gothic hands that destroyed this fair monument, in which had been consulted not less the power than the fame and renown of the country. Inveighing, as we think very properly, against the authors of a proceeding which we consider as "deserving of the most severe and unqualified censure, the writer thus continues:

To escape, in some measure, from the reproach likely to follow this ruthless dilapidation of the fairest fabric India ever saw, the Directors have thought proper to found at Hertford a college for the instruction of youth destined for their civil service abroad. In this college there are at present thirty-four pupils, and the establishment for their education consists of a Principal, eight Professors, and seve ral Masters, engaged, and very properly so, at liberal salaries. The Court have already voted, on estimate only, nearly seventy thousand pounds, merely for the first establishment, exclusive of the stipends of the Principal, Professors, and Masters, and the regular current domestic expences, with the incidental charges hereafter to arise, which, no doubt, will be very considerable. As a counterpoise to these heavy disbursements, the young men are to pay one hundred pounds a year each for their education. How far that contribution may diminish the general expence, can be accurately known only when the first year's accounts are made up; but the obvious conclusion is, that it will operate in a very trifling proportion to the total expence.

The purposes, if rightly understood, for which the College at Hertford was instituted, are two fold; first, to instruct youth in the general learning of Europe; secondly to teach them the rudiments of the Oriental languages. It is to be doubted whether the first of these objects be not attainable in, at least, an equal degree of perfection at the University of Oxford, or of Cambridge, or at our great national schools of Eton or Westminster. It is possible that Dr. Hill, the learned professor of humanity at Edinburgh, is full as well qualified to give youth an insight into the res humanitatis, as the young professor at Hertford, to whom no disrespect is intended by the comparison; and it is to be hoped that neither of the respectable and highlyqualified gentlemen who fill the Oriental departments, will think their abilities undervalued, when it is presumed that young men, assisted in their studies by the learned Pundits and Moulvies of Bengal, would make more progress there in six months than they can in twelve, or perhaps in any given time, at Hertford, where the only native Indian teacher is a menial servant, who lately came to England with a gentle man returned from the East. The man, doubtless, is useful, when no better can be had, especially as he is under the superintendance of so capable an Orientalist as the Professor of Persian in Hertford College. It, however, strikingly evinces the superior advantage that attends the study of languages in the country, and among the people, where such languages are vernacular *, rather than in Europe, where

the

* The celebrated Sir William Jones, after several years intense study of the Oriental languages in Europe, went to India, and when Ee 4

he