kitchen is the infirmary room, and on the left a room for female debtors. Men debtors have a court-yard with a pump and a fewer in it, a large dayroom with a fire-place and glazed windows; and on each fide a large fleeping-room (which is a free ward), with a fire-place and glazed windows. Upftairs are four fleeping-rooms with glazed windows, and fire-places in two of them. If the debtor brings his own bed, he pays nothing; if the Keeper furnishes one, 2s. 6d. a week. Men felons have a court about 35 feet by 25, into which one fleeping-cell open's; a day-room (26 feet 4, by 14) into which two cells open. Adjoining to this day-room is a paffage 16 feet long, and 4 feet wide, called the iron gate, into which four cells open thefe are intended for the worst clafs of prifoners. The court, day-room, and fleepingcells for women felons, are the fame as thofe for the men on the oppofite fide of the Gaol. The Houle of Correction is under the fame roof, but feparated from the Gaol by the Chapel. The day-room has a fire-place and irongrated windows; two fleeping-cells open into it. In the court-yard there is a double cell for thofe under fentence of death the outer cell has an iron grating over the door, and is 15 feet by 10 feet 6 inches: the inner cell, which opens into it, and where the prifoner fleeps, is 6 feet 6 inches, by 3 feet 6, and almoft totally dark, There are two reception cells for prifoners when firft brought in. Each cell is 6 feet, by 4 feet 10 inches, and 8 feet high, fitted up with a woodrack bedftead, firaw in facking, bed (fresh ftraw every month), two blankets, and a rug; the door-way only 3 feet 10 inches high. Mops, brooms, and foap, are allowed to keep the prifon clean, but neither pails nor towels. Prifoners are to have one-third of their earnings, the Gaoler one, and the County one; weaving juft begun, Prifoners 7th September, 1803: debtors 3; felons 4; Bridewell 2: total 9. September 12, 1806: debtors none; felons, &c. 10. The Priton very clean, and books for the visiting Magiftrates. Chaplain and Surgeon to enter their reports, The two former are very regular, but none from the Surgeon fince the 4th Augult. No rules and orders. No county cloathing. Act and claufes not hung up, and tranfports have not the King's allowance of 2s. 6d, a week. BRECON Town Gaol; David Morgan (Serjeant at Mace, and a fhoemaker), Gaoler; falary 51.; fees 3s. 6d. Chaplain none. Surgeon (if wanted) from the Borough. Allowance 2d. a day in bread. A dark dungeon about 12 feet fquare down 10 steps: ftraw on a mud floor. No court! no water! The only light it receives is from a fmall iron grating, level with the street. Up-ftairs are four rooms for debtors, who furnish their own beds, or pay the Keeper 1s. per week for the use of one. At my vifit 12 September, 1806, the Keeper told me that the allowance was now one pound and a half of bread per day; that his falary had been difcontinued thefe two years. There are only two rooms now for debtors, who are committed by procefs iffuing out of the Borough Court, from one fhilling to any amount. Prifoners none. WALSALL Town Gaol; William Mafon, Gaoler; falary none; fees 3s. 4d. ; and 2s. to the Town Clerk on commitment of every felon. Two rooms under the Town-hall; that for debtors has a fire-place; it is down five fieps, with an iron-grated window to the treet, but not being glazed, and no infide fhutters, is extremely cold; ftraw only upon the damp brick floor to fleep upon. A door opens out of this room into a dark dungeon for fe lons, about three yards fquare. Adjoining to the debtors room, is one for felons, with an iron-grated window to the fireet, and two dark dungeons with ftraw on the floor to fleep on, Allowance to debtors and felons 2d, per day. No court! no fewer! no water! The beadle told me he brought it to the grating for the prifoners. Felons for petty offences remain here till the Quarter feffions. No debtors are confined here for less than 107. November 2, 1802, no prifoners, WOLVERHAMPTON Bridewell, rebuilt 1800; Keeper, George Roberts; falary 801.; fees, none. Chaplain, none. Surgeon, Mr. Fowke; makes a bill, Allowance 74 lb. belt wheat bread, 1 pound of cheese, and 54d. in money or in vegetables per week each. Men prifoners have a fall flagged court about 11 yards by 6, with a pump and fewer in it. A day-room with a fireplace, a work-room, and two folitary cells, Up-ftairs are 10 fleeping cells, and an infirmary-room with a fire place in it. Women prifoners have a day-room and work room below ftairs, A fmall ftate-room. The Court not being fe- A fmall court 9 yards by 6, with wa- WELLINGTON, Shropshire; Gaoler, Edward Tonge (a fheriff's officer); falary none; fees 7s. 6d. ; allowance none whatever. Five rooms in the Keeper's houfe, three of which are totally dark; the Gaoler, paying window tax, has flopped them up. No court; no water; no fewer! The prifon in a very dilapidated ftate, aud filthy in the extreme. Fees, no table. Act and claufes not hung up; and feven years fince it was white-waflied. Debtors from the hundred of Bradford are Brought here. Straw worn to duft on the floor. The Gaoler told me two debtors were released by the Infolvent Act, after a confinement of two years. 1802, November 4, no prifoners. WALSINGHAM, Norfolk: William Wright, Gaoler; falary 401.; fees none; Chaplain none; the Rev. Mr. Warner reads prayers every Sunday, without a falary. Surgeon, Mr. Bullock; fulary 101. Allowance two pound two ounces of bread every day. On the ground floor are four cells 12 feet 6, by 6 feet 6 inches, and 9 feet high, fitted up Straw with crib bediteads. in facking beds, two blankets, two fheets, and a coverlit. Each has an iron-grated window 3 feet fquare with infide fhutter (there are glazed windows to put up in cold weather). An aperture or pot-hole in each door 8 inches by 6, the cell door opens into a lobby or paffage 4 feet wide, and 33 feet long, at the end of which is the chapel 18 feet by 9, and 9 feet high. Up-ftairs are four cells the fame fize, and fitted up in the fame manner, with an infirmary-room at the end, and a fire-place in it, the fame fize as the chapel; and a Mr. URBAN. Dec. io. HAVE refided for many years in one of the most populous and genteel parishes at the Weft end of the town; and during that time I have regularly attended the Parish Church, where the fervice is performed with great decorum, with the exception of the mufical part, in which, I am forry to fay, we are miferably deficient. The organ is a very fine one, and a gentleman of great eminence in the mufical world is our Organist; but he unfortunately feldom or never attends. In this, I believe, he is not fingular, for it has become too much the practice now for Organists to fend their pupils to officiate for them. I am perfectly aware that practice is neceffary in order that their pupils may make progrefs in their profeffion; but they certainly ought to practife on the Church organ at a time when the Church is empty, and not to annoy the audience with their bad playing. It is the cuftom, I believe, in all Churches where there are Organs, to have what is called a voluntary played either when the Clergyman enters the reading defk, or immediately before the leflons, which latter is the cuflom in our Church. This has, without doubt, been done to give additional grandeur and folemnity to the fervice of the Church; and, when Mufio fuitable for the occafion is played, it certainly has that effect; but I do not think that Marches, Country Dances, Overtures to Operas, and pieces of that fort, ought to be performed in our Churches. Such mufic onr Organitt, or rather his Deputy, very frequently introduces; and I am really aftonifhed that our worthy Rector does not put a flop to this, which, in my humble opinion, is, a very improper practice. I had almoft forgotten to mention that the Singing Pfalms are now hɩ rried over in a very carelefs and indecent manner, and the congregation and the charity children, can fometimesfcarcely keep keep pace with the Organift. This is a Mr. URBAN, Dec. 1. IF the following extract from a letter N. "From the 26th of laft May to the. 2nd of June a land-wind fet in every morning about nine o'clock, and continued till fix in the evening. This wind was fo infufferably hot and parching, that, added to the perpendicular rays of a fcorching fun, every body was half dead with fatigue. During_the night too the heat was quite oppreffive; as you will fuppofe when you are told, that a range of hills, not above four or five miles diftant, were all on fire. The cause of this is, that the inhabitants of the hills (called Cones) fet fire to the Bamboo, and other bushes, with which thefe hills are covered, and the fpots left bare by this conflagration are rendered fertile by the afhes, and ready. for cultivation. The fire generally con tinues burning till the fetting in of the rainy feafon in the beginning of June. The rains were fo late in fetting in this year (viz. 1805) that the people began to apprehend a famine; and a fcarcity and dearnefs of rice had already taken place. To avert this impending evil, the Bramins deemed it neceflary that a victim fhould be offered up to procure rain! Accordingly a Faqueer, or religious beggar, came, whether voluntarily or not I cannot fay, and, in cafe there was no rain in a certain time, he was to be burnt. I went with fome other officers to fee him, and found him feated on the ground furrounded by four beams of wood, which were on fire, and at the diftance of two yards from him. He looked very pale, and emaciated, having been there fome days, but feemed quite unconcerned, as he was fmoking all the while. do not recollect how many days wer. allowed him before he was to be burnt, the rain, however, at length bega.. and, I believe, his life was faved. T.. all occurred in the village of Bar... pore a few months ago." about Westminster hall, and as I happened to be in that neighbourhood yefterday, I took a peep at the proceedings. The fuccoing of the offices for the House of Lords is in a confiderable ftate of forwardness; but how far the defign is an imilation of our antient architecture, or adapted to the flyle of the old parts of the building, I must leave to the determination of your friend" the Architect," or your occafional correfpondent " J. C." and I hope that the publick will foon be gratified with the obfervations of thofe gentlemen on thefe alterations now going forward. One thing, however, ftrikes me as being an impropriety. The centre part of the Weft front of thefe new offices is higher than the other parts of the front, and is terminated at each angle by a buttrels. In this centre part are two projecting bow-windows rifing from the roof of the cloifter, and between these bow-windows are fquare ones with labels over them. The bowwindows do not rife to the top of the building; but, over them, long pointed arched windows are introduced, and, between thefe, a small fquare window. Now, as I have never, in any of our antient buildings that I have feen, met with an example of a Pointed arched window over a bow-window, I fhould be obliged to any of your correfpondents, acquainted with thofe matters, to point out from what building this is copied. The whole of the front is indeed but an indifferent defign, and, from the immenfe number of windows, the Building has more the appearance of a Colton-mill, than of offices for the public bufinefs of the Nation. I am happy to fee that all the old houfes in the neighbourhood of St. Margaret's church are removed, and that the beautiful Abbey is, by that means, more expofed to view than it has been for many years. Indeed, if it were poffible to remove St. Margaret's church at the fame time, it would be a fill farther improvement; but at any rate I hope fomething will be done to its exterior, to make it accord more with the architecture of the adjoining Abbey. I faw lately in the newspapers, an advertiseinent announcing the fale of the materials of the Ordnance office. I am happy to hear that that building is likewife removed, as the fireet was too narrow in that part; but I fhould have been as well pleafed if the materials of the front had been referved for the purpofe hinted by your correfpondent, p. 496. I am, like him, an avowed enemy to all cements, which I confider as impofitions on the publick, and which, although they may be used by gentlemen for the fronts of their houfes, yet ought never to be applied to the repair or reftoration of any of our antient public buildings. I fhall just take the liberty of hinting at another alteration, which I think would be a very great improvement. I would propofe that a complete fweep fhould be made of all the houfes on the Weft-fide of Parliament-fireet and the whole of King-ftreet, which in its prefent fate is but a nuifance; and that a fireet as wide as Whitehall should be continued all the way to Wefiminfter hall, which would make a much finer approach to our Courts, and likewife to Weltminster Abbey. By favouring thefe few obser vations with a corner in your next number, you will much oblige your conftant reader ALBION Mr. URBAN, A Salisbury, Dec. 2, FTER various interruptions of my defigned regularity of correfpondence, from caufes of a nature wholly foreign to the publick, I refume my pen with a reference to a few particulars in the two laft Numbers of your inftructive Mifcellany, And, first, I would note the obfer vations made on the word dentex, at the clofe of your Reviewer's remarks, p.932, on the fixth article of the Archæ ologia, vol. XV. It is there faid, that "there is no fuch word in Ainsworth," perhaps meaning denticum, which indeed there is not, if he expected to find denticum as a noun of the fecond declenfion and neuter gender, In this, however, I apprehend he is miflaken, as he may probably find on another perufal of the original article, which I fhould with him to afcertain correctly; becaufe dentex is there mentioned as a noun of the third declenfion, and explained a kind of fish with fhurp teeth, Col. 8.16. Plin. 37. HO. which evidently produces denticum in the genitive plu ral, and therefore the obfervation should not have been hazarded,, At p. 996 of the laft Number is an apparent inveftigation of the real time of our Saviour's nativity. Without entering into the queftion, whether it may may be either prudent or politic to unhinge the public mind refpecting fuch precife time, and the tendency of fuch difquifitions to countenance and encourage fceptical and atheistical tempers; I would refer your readers to the obfervations of a writer of the last century, now becoming fcarce, viz. Bedford's Scriptural Chronology, in fol. 1730, but the page, &c. I cannot recite from memory. It is there demonftrated to have happened on the 7th of October, if my recollection does not greatly fail me. When an inhabitant of Golden-fquare occafionally makes an excurfion, to READING, or any other place where the circumftances he has stated may be verified in the way he relates; he fhould recollect at the fame time that the pages of the Gentleman's Magazine ought not to have been defiled with ftigma tizing those, who in general may be confidered as its admirers and fupporters. I could mention to Theodofius fome anecdotes, collected from an occafional refidence and an extenfive obfervation in feven or eight counties, befides accidental connexions with feveral others; in which certain clergymen, either as lecturers, morning preachers, &c. &c. have been followed in crowds by Methoditts, both of the Arminian and Calviniftic perfuafion. Bat I wish, Mr. Urban, to avoid too much intrafion upon your pages. ners, and much more in charity, for perfons of fuch a description. To the inftances of failure of compocementing, noticed by An Architect in p. 1005, the difgulting appearance of the handfome elegant tower of Fonthill abbey, in this nighbourhood, might have been added. It is the property of William Beckford, efq. M. P. and an entirely modern ftructure, on which a number of workmen from London have been employed during the fummer in taking down a great part of it, from the decay of the cement, and ftill remain to prepare the materials for restoring it with ftone, at an immenfe expence, though feven years have not yet elapfed fince its completion. OBSERVATOR. NDERSTANDING that my firic tures, p. 1006, on Mrs. Grant's "Letters from the Mountains," there confidered as a Novel, have given offence to that lady's delicacy, as tending to lower her and her family in the public opinion, and difappoint her hopes of affifting them; I take this opportunity to declare, that the firongeft refutation of this charge is, that I not only purchafed the volumes in queftion, but contributed my mite to a fubfcription fet on foot for a meritorious aud diftreffed family. After this, no further conceffion will be required from me. I do not retract the critique. And may I be permitted to tell you how forry I fhould be to have been the subject of many of the adventures of the 'Traveller now in retirement?" A. O. I cannot admit, and I write from long and attentive obfervation and experience, that even the tenth part of the clergy, though certainly of like paffions with others, and fubject to infirmities, are or ought to be deemed objects of cenfure, to the extent which this writer would fix upon them. I am by no means, whatever he may think of me, of an intolerant or perfecuting fpirit. I am not anxious to fupport any one, who does not appear to be fairly entitled to it. But I muft obferve, that it is one thing to find fault with individuals of any profeffion, and with none fo eafily as with clergymen ; quite ano ther to prove the truth of fuch general copious INDEXES, &c. &c. and comprehenfive charges and affertions, which, however wantonly they may be advanced, cannot be fo eafily demonftrated. The habits of Clergymen 100, are very differem, frequently, from the rest of mankind, especially of those who have long lived in Colleges and Univerfities, before they return into the world as parith priclis; and on that account much allowance ought to be made in decency and good man From a particular circumftance, we are under the neceffity of poftponing the LYTTON Family; ACADEMICUS; Dr. ORWADE; J. W. L. B.; Mr. HAWKER, and fome other letters intended for this month; but they fhall appear in the SUPPLEMENT, with a complete LIST of the NEW PARLIAMENT; a neat Perspective View of the Old Buildings at the back of the EXCHEQUER; the LOORY from Amboyna; General Titles and Preface, with INTELLIGENDI CUPIDUS is referred for an answer to one of his Queries to the NEW TESTAMENT; for the other to the BANK SOLICITOR; SEMPER FIDELIS to the Court Calendar.-There is no end of fuch trifling Questions. To our controverfial Correfpondents we ftrongly recommend brevity and moderation. One intemperate word, we univerfally perceive, produces twenty in reply. 203. |